trip report: Guadalupe NP
Doug McDonald
American Airlines ad on top.
The "standard" pictures from the from of the mountain range don't
do the trail justice, at least, not two weeks ago after the recent
rainy season.
The trail went through a lovely conifer forest scattered with blooming
desert plants each of which was frequently visited by a butterfly.
Utterly amazing.
I also visited Rocky Mountain NP and was utterly devastated by how bad it looked.
Dead trees everywhere in the western part, and some even on the east side.
Also the haze was so awful that I cut a planned two day visit to three hours.
Good news was that the standard route up Long's Peak was already open
for tourist business.
Doug McDonald
dsl
wrote:
I was very pleasantly surprised at the variety of terrain & scenery
along the trail to Guadalupe. I expected it to be very dry and desert-
like, but it turned out that the trail passed through a lot of
different vegetation and was quite beautiful.
As for RMNP, hopefully the terrible haze was due to the forest fires
in Utah and not due to pollution from the Front Range. That's sad
about all the trees -- pine beetle kill, I suppose?
-- D Winger
www.HighpointAdventures.com
Robert Barron
camping at all, so we'd need to be able to sleep someplace with running
water and air conditioning and just do day hikes in the park.
Robert
http://www.austinexplorer.com/
http://www.texashiking.com/
Doug McDonald
> What's lodging like in the area? My wife just does not want to try
> camping at all, so we'd need to be able to sleep someplace with running
> water and air conditioning and just do day hikes in the park.
>
There is no commercial motel/hotel at the park. The closest is about
11 miles away at White's City, right at Carlsbad Caverns National park. There
are two plain old fashioned motels there, apparently co-owned. They
are somewhat old and slightly bedraggled but clean and perfectly
adequate. There is a small grocery and a restaurant; you get a prepaid
full hot breakfast (bacon and either eggs or pancakes, etc.) of your
choice at the restaurant with a motel room, a big plus. The whole
effect is nostalgic.
Then, 16 miles farther away, is the huge modern circus that is Carlsbad
itself.
I stayed at White's City and was glad I did, but I'm not overly picky and
like nostalgia.
Doug McDonald
Elliot Richmond
<mcdonald@SnPoAM_scs.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>Robert Barron wrote:
>> What's lodging like in the area? My wife just does not want to try
>> camping at all, so we'd need to be able to sleep someplace with running
>> water and air conditioning and just do day hikes in the park.
>>
>
>There is no commercial motel/hotel at the park. The closest is about
>11 miles away at White's City, right at Carlsbad Caverns National park. There
>are two plain old fashioned motels there, apparently co-owned. They
>are somewhat old and slightly bedraggled but clean and perfectly
>adequate. There is a small grocery and a restaurant; you get a prepaid
>full hot breakfast (bacon and either eggs or pancakes, etc.) of your
>choice at the restaurant with a motel room, a big plus. The whole
>effect is nostalgic.
>
I agree except the distance is closer to 40 miles. Unless there is a
shortcut I don't know about. The park boundaries actually come very
close, but you have to drive a longer way around.
Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher
Freelance science writer
Doug McDonald
You are right --- I misremembered. It's 35 miles from White's City to
Gaudalupe Mountain NP and 25 miles from White's City to the center of
Carlsbad. However, it's not "a longer way around" ... it's a
straight run, on a good road with a whopping high speed limit,
two lanes notwithstanding.
Doug McDonald
Elliot Richmond
It's longer than a straight line, which would be 23 miles from visitor
center to visitor center. It's longer than the distance between the
park boundaries, which are only about five miles apart at the closest
point.
Robert Barron
Thanks for the info. I hope to make use of some of this information
sooner rather than later, but it gets harder and harder with the kids.