Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I got to go to Texas today!  For a while now, I've been wanting to visit/work/hike in the Guadalupe Mountains.  Today, with the park only a half hour down the road, and in Texas, I got to.

 

It's been a very busy few weeks, getting programs put together, giving my first cave tour, and trying to stay away from rattlesnakes.  I was planning on focusing on my bat flight talk and other research I still need to do, but my co-worker talked me into a hiking trip in the Guadalupes and I simply couldn't say no. 

 

We set our sights on one of the peaks, Hunter Mountain, and we were off.  I loved how the scenery went from Chihuahuan desert vegetation....

...to trees!  As we hiked further into this lovely mixed conifer and sporadic hardwood forest, we kept commenting to each other how wonderful it smelled.  And it did!  Beautiful, wonderful, trees!

Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks are the best examples of Permian geology in the world.  I won't bore you with the geological details of this place, but it's pretty spectacular.  In the picture below, say hello to a section of the reef that used to ring pre-historic Delaware Sea.  

We made good time getting up to the top where we randomly ran into another co-worker and her friend.  The view was awesome.  I'm so excited to explore this fabulous park.  I will need to get something with which to carry more water (temps today were in the high 90s) and get my talks and tours squared away at work before I can really play.