Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Park Information

• Date Established: September 30, 1972
• Location: Western Texas
• Area: 86,416 acres

Overview

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is considered a hiker’s park, with more than 80 miles (128 kilometers) of trails that lead to unique geological formations and varied environmental settings. The park includes four of the highest mountains in Texas and, according to some measurements, nine of ten of the highest peaks in the state. Its namesake mountain range was once part of a reef in a prehistoric inland sea. It is now considered the best example of a fossilized reef from Earth’s Permian era.

Although the park includes the fossilized reef, towering mountains, and other beautiful scenic features, it is among the least visited national parks in America. This is in part because the remote park and the surrounding area have intentionally been kept free of hotels and destination sites that attract tourist crowds to many other parks. There are no paved roads that allow visitors to drive through the park to sight see, and only a few campgrounds exist for overnight accommodations. The park is maintained as a wilderness site that provides an opportunity for people to visit the land in a relatively unspoiled condition.

History

During the Permian era more than 250 million years ago, the area that became Guadalupe Mountains National Park was underwater. During this time, there were only two main landmasses on Earth—an area that is now part of Asia and a large supercontinent known as Pangea. There was also one main ocean, Panthalassa. However, areas of Pangea had inland seas formed of accumulated rainwater. This was the case in the area of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Life in the area consisted of sponges, algae, and other simple organisms. As they lived and died, they formed a reef along the shore of the inland sea. Eventually, this reef grew to be about 400 miles (643 kilometers) long. The Permian era ended with an unknown extinction event that ended nearly all life. The inland sea dried up and, over time, was filled in by sediment. Over many thousands of years, Earth’s tectonic plates shifted and new continents formed. The area was heaved up from under the sediment, carrying with it the fossilized remains in the reef. This reef in the Guadalupe Mountains is the best example of a reef from the Permian era that has ever been discovered.

The first evidence of human habitation of the area dates back to the end of the last ice age about twelve thousand years ago. The mountains and surrounding foothills contain signs that people of the time were hunting for the prehistoric mammoths that lived in the area. There are also some pictographs carved in rocks that were made by ancient people. Centuries later, Native Americans also camped and hunted in the area. However, they were eventually driven out by European settlers, prospectors, and eventually military forces.

The park itself has its origins in the 1930s. By then, the area was being used for ranching and had attracted interest from companies looking for petroleum and mineral resources. While working as a geologist for one of these companies, Wallace Pratt bought a parcel of land in the mountains. Nearly three decades later, in 1959, Pratt gave this land to the National Park Service for use as a wilderness park. Over the course of several decades, the park service purchased or accepted donations of more land in the same vicinity. On September 30, 1972, the bill designating the creation of the park was approved by Congress. Additional land was purchased in 1998, including 10,000 acres on the west side of the park that includes dunes made of red quartz rose and white gypsum left behind when the area was underwater millennia ago.

Geology and Ecology

The park includes part of the Chihuahuan Desert and a portion of the Guadalupe Mountains. The mountain range is part of the same ancient limestone formation that created Carlsbad Caverns, which are located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away. This range includes four of the highest points in Texas. The tallest is Guadalupe Peak, which reaches a height of 8,751 feet (2,667 meters). One of the best known is El Capitan, a 1000-foot (304-meter) limestone ridge that is one of the park’s iconic sites.

About 80 miles (129 kilometers) of trails wind through the park, taking visitors on foot through areas such as Dog Canyon, Bear Canyon, and McKittrick Canyon, a series of rock steps called Hiker’s Staircase, and a long, thin canyon known as Devil’s Hall. The park also includes America’s second-largest dunes, the gypsum dunes, which are located on the park’s west side. Although they are one of the park’s most unique attractions, they are also in a remote location and, as a result, see few visitors.

The park is home to a variety of plant and animal life. The more than one thousand types of plants found there range from desert scrub grasses and cactuses to towering Ponderosa pines, Pinyon pines, gray oaks, Bigtooth maples, junipers, and other types of trees filling the mountainsides and canyons. The ecosystems include streamside forests, rugged mountains with alpine environments, and arid dunes and deserts.

Living in the park are more than fifty-five types of reptiles, nearly three hundred different species of birds, and about sixty different kinds of mammals. Three species found in the park—the Mexican spotted owl, gray wolf, and brown bear—are considered either endangered or threatened. Other mammals found in the park include mule deer, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, badgers, and over a dozen different species of bats. Some of the animals are dangerous, such as the five species of rattlesnakes that can be found throughout the park.

Bibliography

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“Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” American Southwest, www.americansouthwest.net/texas/guadalupe‗mountains/national‗park.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” Greatest American Road Trip, www.thegreatestroadtrip.com/guadalupe-mountains-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” National Geographic, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/guadalupe-mountains-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/guadalupe-mountains-national-park. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

“Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” National Park Service, www.nps.gov/gumo/index.htm. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

Ramirez, Sonia. “A Texas Hidden Gem: Guadalupe Mountains National Park.” Texas Hill Country, 18 Aug. 2017, texashillcountry.com/texas-gem-guadalupe-mountains-national-park/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.

Repanshek, Kurt. “Marking ‘Endangered Species Day’ in the National Park System.” National Parks Traveler, 20 May 2011, www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2011/05/marking-endangered-species-day-national-park-system8154. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.