NEW MEXICO AND TEXAS: GUADALUPE MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK AND WHITE'S CITY

July 1, 2021

We had a day of hiking planned and wanted to get an early start. We were out the door by 6:00 AM and on our way to McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountain National Park. Low clouds still clung to the Guadalupe Peaks, and the air was cool and fresh because of the rains of the previous two days.

We arrived at the gate to McKittrick Canyon at 6:50 AM. Since it wasn't supposed to open until 8:00, we drove to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park main visitor's center. It also did not open until 8:00, so we walked an easy one-mile loop trail that was nearby.

Desert flowers--what can I  say? They are downright dazzling . . . 

. . .  and such a contrast to the harsh--and yet still beautiful--landscape of the desert.

The Butterfield Overland Trail, a forerunner of the Pony Express and Transcontinental Railroad, was the first communication/transportation link of the East and West. Butterfield coaches filled with up to nine passengers and 12,000 pieces of mail could complete the 2,700-mile journey between St. Louis and San Francisco in a mere 25 days. These walls are part of the Butterfield Pinery Station, and in 1858-1859, coaches regularly stopped here for water, rest, food, and fresh teams.

Hello, little buddy!

I especially loved this tree with its maroon-colored bark: The Texas Madrone (or Madroñe).

My very favorite tree, however, is the desert willow with its orchid-like flowers and long bean pods. I have seen these growing in the town where I live and want to plant one in my yard.

When we got back to the parking lot, this truck was taking up quite a bit of room. We could have used one of these magical beverages, but I think we would have had to buy the whole load to get one.

It was a little after 8:00, the time the McKittrick Canyon Road was supposed to open, so we hopped in the car and drove back to it.  

Nope. We sat there until 8:15, and suddenly Bob recalled that we had crossed the border into Texas, and with that we had changed time zones.  It was 9:15, not 8:15. Clearly this road was not going to open, so we returned to the main visitor's center where we had been before, hoping to get some information about the closure.

The visitor's center had actually been open when we had been there before, but there were no other cars and we didn't think to try to entrance because we thought we were too early. Sheesh. Anyway, we learned that McKittrick was closed because of flooding. The rangers suggested alternatives, but nothing sounded that great, so we walked the one-mile loop again.

We paid a little more attention to the Texas/New Mexico border as we drove back towards Carlsbad Caverns.  (Someone scrawled "Montana Bound" under the Texas flag.)

We had a 12:30 entrance time scheduled for Carlsbad Caverns, so we figured we had better eat at the only place around, White's City, New Mexico, a grouping of a few buildings, a gas station, and a restaurant. According to Wikipedia, it had a population of seven in the 2010 census.

Giant bats on the roof . . . 

. . . and more Roswell aliens welcomed us.

Carlsbad Caverns is famous for its bats and formations, "artistically" represented in the store windows.

But the tacky windows were a whole lot better than the tacky décor inside. 

Besides the unique barstools, we saw a two-headed cow, Sasquatch . . . 

. . . and a dentist's delight.

Lunch at the Cactus Café was memorable for how awful it was. I had a bean and cheese burrito and Bob had a veggie hamburger.

Luckily I had this to cleanse my palate.

We had about 20 minutes or so to kill on our way to Carlsbad Caverns, so we stopped for a short walk in Walnut Canyon.  

The path included several signs that gave me more appreciation for what I was seeing.

This unfriendly holly-looking plant, for example, is an algerita, and local people ate its berries raw, used the berries to treat sores, and made yellow dye from the roots.

A sign told us that the park gets about 14" of rain each year, most of it in heavy late-summer downpours like the one we had experienced the previous day. This area is not always filled with water, but because of the storm, we got to see its pond version. 

Archeologists have found evidence of ancient fires and animal bones under this rock overhang and another one nearby, indicating that they were a resting place for ancient travelers.

And look! There's one of those ancient travelers!