edit

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas and contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet (2,667 m) in elevation. It also contains El Capitan, long used as a landmark by people traveling along the old route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line. Visitors can see the ruins of an old stagecoach station near the Pine Springs Visitor Center. Camping is available nearby at the Pine Springs Campground. The restored Frijole Ranch House is now a small museum of local ranching history and is the trailhead for Smith Spring. The park covers 135 square miles (350 km2) and is in the same mountain range as Carlsbad Caverns National Park which is located about 25 miles (40 km) to the north in New Mexico. Numerous well-established trails exist in the park for hiking and horse-riding. The Guadalupe Peak Trail offers perhaps the most outstanding views in the park. Climbing over 3000 feet to the summit of Guadalupe Peak, the trail winds through pinon pine and douglas fir forests and offers spectacular views of El Capitan and the vast Chihuahuan desert.

The park also contains McKittrick Canyon. During the Fall, McKittrick comes alive with a blaze of color from the turning Bigtooth Maples, in stark contrast with the surrounding Chihuahuan desert. A trail in the canyon leads to a stone cabin built in the early 1930s, formerly the vacation home of Wallace Pratt, a petroleum geologist who donated the land in order to establish the park.

For details on the area's geology, see Delaware Basin.

Map of Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Guadalupe mountains National park

Guadalupe mountains National park

Sign at the entrance

View of El Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas (2006)

See also

External links

v • d • National parks of the United States
Acadia • American Samoa • Arches • Badlands • Big Bend • Biscayne • Black Canyon of the Gunnison • Bryce Canyon • Canyonlands • Capitol Reef • Carlsbad Caverns • Channel Islands • Congaree • Crater Lake • Cuyahoga Valley • Death Valley • Denali • Dry Tortugas • Everglades • Gates of the Arctic • Glacier • Glacier Bay • Grand Canyon • Grand Teton • Great Basin • Great Sand Dunes • Great Smoky Mountains • Guadalupe Mountains • Haleakalā • Hawaiʻi Volcanoes • Hot Springs • Isle Royale • Joshua Tree • Katmai • Kenai Fjords • Kings Canyon • Kobuk Valley • Lake Clark • Lassen Volcanic • Mammoth Cave • Mesa Verde • Mount Rainier • North Cascades • Olympic • Petrified Forest • Redwood • Rocky Mountain • Saguaro • Sequoia • Shenandoah • Theodore Roosevelt • Virgin Islands • Voyageurs • Wind Cave • Wrangell-St. Elias • Yellowstone • Yosemite • Zion
List of National Parks of the United States (by elevation)
v • d • Protected Areas of Texas
Federal
National Parks Big Bend • Guadalupe Mountains
National Monuments and Memorials Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument • Chamizal National Memorial
National Historical Parks and Historic Sites El Orcoquisac Archeological District • Fort Davis National Historic Site • Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park • Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park • San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
National Historic Trails El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
National Recreation Areas Amistad • Lake Meredith
National Wildlife Refuges Anahuac • Aransas • Attwater Prairie Chicken • Balcones Canyonlands • Big Boggy • Brazoria • Buffalo Lake • Grulla • Hagerman • Laguna Atascosa • Lower Rio Grande Valley • McFaddin • Muleshoe • San Bernard • Santa Ana • Texas Point • Trinity River
National Forests Angelina • Davy Crockett • Sabine • Sam Houston
National Grasslands Caddo • Lyndon B. Johnson • McClellan Creek • Rita Blanca
Other Protected Areas Big Thicket National Preserve • Padre Island National Seashore • Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River
State
State Parks and Natural Areas Abilene • Atlanta • Balmorhea • Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center • Bastrop • Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley • Big Bend Ranch • Big Spring • Blanco • Boca Chica • Bonham • Brazos Bend • Buescher • Caddo Lake • Caprock Canyons • Cedar Hill • Choke Canyon • Cleburne • Colorado Bend • Cooper Lake • Copper Breaks • Daingerfield • Davis Mountains • Devils River State Natural Area • Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area • Dinosaur Valley • Eisenhower • Enchanted Rock State Natural Area • Estero Llano Grande • Fairfield Lake • Falcon • Fort Boggy • Fort Parker State Park • Fort Richardson State Park • Franklin Mountains • Galveston Island • Garner • Goliad • Goose Island • Government Canyon State Natural Area • Guadalupe River • Hill Country State Natural Area • Honey Creek State Natural Area • Huntsville • Indian Lodge • Inks Lake • Kickapoo Cavern • Lake Arrowhead • Lake Bob Sandlin • Lake Brownwood • Lake Casa Blanca International • Lake Colorado City • Lake Corpus Christi • Lake Livingston • Lake Mineral Wells • Lake Somerville • Lake Tawakoni • Lake Texana • Lake Whitney • Lockhart • Longhorn Cavern • Lost Creek Reservoir State Trailway • Lost Maples State Natural Area • Martin Creek Lake • Martin Dies, Jr. • Matagorda Island • McKinney Falls • Meridian • Mission Tejas • Monahans Sandhills • Mother Neff State Park • Mustang Island • Palmetto • Palo Duro Canyon • Pedernales Falls • Possum Kingdom • Purtis Creek • Ray Roberts Lake • Resaca de la Palma • San Angelo • Sea Rim • Sheldon Lake • South Llano River • Stephen F. Austin • Tyler • Village Creek • Walter Umphrey • Wyler Aerial Tramway
State Historic Sites Acton • Admiral Nimitz • Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos • Battleship TEXAS • Caddoan Mounds • Casa Navarro • Confederate Reunion Grounds • Eisenhower Birthplace • Fanthorp Inn • Fannin Battleground • Fort Griffin • Fort Lancaster • Fort Leaton • Fort McKavett • Fort Richardson • Fulton Mansion • Goliad • Hueco Tanks • Kreische Brewery • Landmark Inn • Levi Jordan Plantation • Lipantitlan • Lyndon B. Johnson • Magoffin Homestead • Mission Espiritu Santo • Mission Rosario • Monument Hill • Penn Farm • Point Isabel Lighthouse • Sabine Pass Battleground • Sam Bell Maxey House • Samuel T. Rayburn House • San Felipe • San Jacinto Battleground • Sauer-Beckmann Farm • Sebastopol House • Seminole Canyon • Starr Family Home • Varner•Hogg Plantation • Washington-on-the-Brazos • Zaragosa Birthplace
State Forests E.O. Siecke • I.D. Fairchild • John Henry Kirby • Masterson • W. Goodrich Jones
State Wildlife Trails Great Texas Coastal • Heart of Texas • Panhandle Plains • Prairies and Pineywoods
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Categories: IUCN Category II | Culberson County, Texas | Hudspeth County, Texas | National parks in Texas | Archaeological sites in Texas | Protected areas established in 1966

  • Featured content
  • Current events
  • Random article
    • Interaction
    Toolbox
    Print/export
    Languages

    The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
    Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
    This page was last archived by our server on Mon Nov 15 16:50:39 2010.
    Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
    The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.