Day 55 - Guadalupe Mountains National Park & Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We spent two nights in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park at the Pine Springs campground. We arrived later than we normally would at a campsite, especially a FCFS on a Friday thinking that it was the summer and people wouldn’t go to the mountains when it’s this hot. We were wrong, the campsite was packed and we were lucky to get one of the last spots at 6pm. There were lots of people arriving after us who had to either find another campsite which could have been about an hour away or camp illegally and hope they don’t get kicked out in the middle of the night.

Although it was the last spot, our campsite was number 20 and is was actually really nice. Very private with plenty of room for our tent and a nice picnic table.

There was no fire ring or BBQ as the risk of fire was too high in the park so we had to use the propane.

We got up early on Saturday morning and went for a early morning hike as the sun was rising. Although the sun wasn’t at its hottest, it was warm and most of the hike involved climbing over boulders. It was a lot of fun doing a hike that wasn’t just walking along a path but climbing and having to try to find a path through the rocks. I was the leader for most of the hike but secretly that was so Lee could catch me if I fell! Although there were lots of warning signs about mountain lions, we didn’t see any but we did see quite a few deer. At the end of the hike was Devils Hall which we climbed up onto and it does feel like you’re in a big hall.

At lunchtime, we headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. You can either get the elevator down to the cave or you can do a 2km hike down a cliff and through the caves to the main area. We did the hike. It was mostly downhill so very easy and interesting to see how the scenery changes the deeper you go into the cave structure.

We’ve done a couple of caverns already but Carlsbad was the largest and with our National Parks Pass, free to go in and explore. It was busy but it was a Saturday and we are only days away now from the 4th July so holiday season too.

We cheated and got the elevator back up!

We headed back to our tent in the Guadalupe Mountains National Parkdriving through some amazing desert scenery before reaching the mountains again.

By the time we got back to the tent mid afternoon, our feet were throbbing and we were both shattered so we had a lazy afternoon in the campsite doing crosswords.

That evening, the stars were out and without any light pollution, they looked stunning even with a full moon. There will be a blog entry solely on Lee's astrophotography sometime in the future.