OTHER Trip Report 05/14/2014

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Guadalupe Peak - 8749 Bush Mountain - 8631
Date Posted	05/14/2014
Date Climbed	05/02/2014
Author	jsdratm

Aliens and Antelope and Rattlers, Oh My!
Earlier this month I did a trip down to the Carlsbad area, meeting another CMC member down there who flew in from Madison, WI. I drove down myself, enjoying my first excursion into the state of New Mexico and almost hitting a pronghorn antelope with my car. I stopped in Roswell to check out the International UFO Museum and thought it was really interesting/amusing. I didn't know much about the Roswell Incident before I went there and found that the information was pretty fairly presented, although I am more inclined to believe the Air Force's story on it. The whole town has seized on the alien thing and there are little green alien statues and signs all over the place, even at the local KFC. It is a fun little town and you can buy some unusual alien merch if you are into that sort of thing. Carlsbad, in comparison, is a pretty boring town IMO. The town is also centered around a main road which has heavy traffic all day and night and there honestly isn't a whole lot to do besides visit restaurants. One morning, the whole town smelled like hydrogen sulfide, probably due to local oil and gas operations. But, we didn't go to see the sights in Carlsbad, we went there to hike! On our first day we took on Guadalupe Peak, the highest peak in Texas. It was about as challenging as Green Mountain in Boulder, but it had very cool views and the trail was very well constructed. I was excited to see a large variety of lizards running around, although there wasn't much else in the way of wildlife in this dry desert landscape. The bizarre thing about the Guadalupe Mountains is that they are an uplifted ancient coral reef, so you can find fossilized sea critters in the rocks on the summit! As far as the trail goes, there are some short sections where you have to be careful and use your hands a bit, but it is overall pretty easy. There is even a hitching post near the summit for people who are too lazy to walk themselves up there. On the second day we visited Carlsbad Caverns. Although it isn't a mountain, it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me and I found it amazing to see how large it was on the inside. You start out at this massive natural entrance and wind your way down a steeply switchbacked trail, nearly 1000' down into the main cavern area. At some points, the cavern ceiling is several hundred feet high and the loop we took from the natural entrance was about 2.5 miles long. There are countless interesting formations to see and the entire trail has guide rails and colored lighting so you can get by without a head lamp. They also have a secluded part of the cave set up with a gift shop, bathrooms, and elevators to the visitor center, which I was surprised to see. On the final day, we decided to do a longer hike and summit Bush Mountain, the second highest peak in Texas. It was about 13 miles RT and 4000' of elevation gain, but all on a well built trail. Along the way we met a rattlesnake, a baby horned lizard, and three mule deer. It was a nice mellow summit with dramatic views to the west and south and we enjoyed the nice breeze for about an hour before hiking back down. The weather on our trip was excellent, whereas the weekend prior had 90 mph wind gusts. Overall, I think this area is highly underrated and, although the mountains are not quite as big as the ones in Colorado, they are beautiful in their own ways and worth visiting. Carlsbad Caverns is a true national treasure and I would love the chance to go back and visit it again. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Aliens and Antelope and Rattlers, Oh My!

Earlier this month I did a trip down to the Carlsbad area, meeting another CMC member down there who flew in from Madison, WI. I drove down myself, enjoying my first excursion into the state of New Mexico and almost hitting a pronghorn antelope with my car. I stopped in Roswell to check out the International UFO Museum and thought it was really interesting/amusing. I didn't know much about the Roswell Incident before I went there and found that the information was pretty fairly presented, although I am more inclined to believe the Air Force's story on it. The whole town has seized on the alien thing and there are little green alien statues and signs all over the place, even at the local KFC. It is a fun little town and you can buy some unusual alien merch if you are into that sort of thing.

Carlsbad, in comparison, is a pretty boring town IMO. The town is also centered around a main road which has heavy traffic all day and night and there honestly isn't a whole lot to do besides visit restaurants. One morning, the whole town smelled like hydrogen sulfide, probably due to local oil and gas operations. But, we didn't go to see the sights in Carlsbad, we went there to hike!

On our first day we took on Guadalupe Peak, the highest peak in Texas. It was about as challenging as Green Mountain in Boulder, but it had very cool views and the trail was very well constructed. I was excited to see a large variety of lizards running around, although there wasn't much else in the way of wildlife in this dry desert landscape. The bizarre thing about the Guadalupe Mountains is that they are an uplifted ancient coral reef, so you can find fossilized sea critters in the rocks on the summit! As far as the trail goes, there are some short sections where you have to be careful and use your hands a bit, but it is overall pretty easy. There is even a hitching post near the summit for people who are too lazy to walk themselves up there.

On the second day we visited Carlsbad Caverns. Although it isn't a mountain, it was definitely the highlight of the trip for me and I found it amazing to see how large it was on the inside. You start out at this massive natural entrance and wind your way down a steeply switchbacked trail, nearly 1000' down into the main cavern area. At some points, the cavern ceiling is several hundred feet high and the loop we took from the natural entrance was about 2.5 miles long. There are countless interesting formations to see and the entire trail has guide rails and colored lighting so you can get by without a head lamp. They also have a secluded part of the cave set up with a gift shop, bathrooms, and elevators to the visitor center, which I was surprised to see.

On the final day, we decided to do a longer hike and summit Bush Mountain, the second highest peak in Texas. It was about 13 miles RT and 4000' of elevation gain, but all on a well built trail. Along the way we met a rattlesnake, a baby horned lizard, and three mule deer. It was a nice mellow summit with dramatic views to the west and south and we enjoyed the nice breeze for about an hour before hiking back down. The weather on our trip was excellent, whereas the weekend prior had 90 mph wind gusts.

Overall, I think this area is highly underrated and, although the mountains are not quite as big as the ones in Colorado, they are beautiful in their own ways and worth visiting. Carlsbad Caverns is a true national treasure and I would love the chance to go back and visit it again.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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