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| Mazanita Spring below the Guadalupe Mountains. |
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| Not this trip - El Capitan from Guadalupe Peak in 2014. |
I have looked down on this section of the Chihuahuan Desert from the highest point in Texas.
While less accomplished, looking up at the mountains from ground level doesn’t feel that bad on a short stop in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
I’m pretty sure my company on the last Guadalupe trip might have strangled me if I even suggested visiting the Frijole Ranch after finishing the round-trip hike to the top of Guadalupe Peak. If we had taken that flat walk, I might have been drowned in the Manzanita or Smith spring pools.
Outside the visitor center lies the ruins of a Butterfield Stage Station, a stagecoach that preceded the Pony Express and operated the first transcontinental mail route.
The park lies at the northern end of the range for many Chihuahuan desert plants and trees, including the madrone with its flaky red bark. With its elevation, the park ends up hosting many northern hardwood species that could only survive in the shade and high-altitude riparian zones within the mountain range.
McKittrick Canyon along the park’s northern realms offered a magical mix of desert and northern fauna, with a wealth of fall color rarely seen this far south.
That will have to wait for this coming autumn. For this Saturday, I wanted a hike that spoke to the history of the region and kept me within sight of the fossil reef that forms the Guadalupe Mountains.
Like most places in the Lower 48, a handful of people tried their hand at homesteading this unforgiving land and had several generations of success before it became a national park. Crossing onto the Frijole Ranch property I immediately heard the gurgle.
How these people thrived in a mostly unforgiving land was no longer a mystery to me. Among the historic buildings was a spring house that protected the ranch’s water supply, as well as the supply that once went to the fruit orchards planted among the trees beyond. The water rapidly flowed through a gutter crossing the yard. The main house had several additions, including a dormer to add second floor living space.
I kept coming back to the water. There’s no reliable river out here. If not for springs, no one could live here. Critical water sources sit close to the ranch house. Near the mountains lies Smith Spring, which goes underground and reemerges as Manzanita Spring, which is a half-mile from the ranch.
A thatch of dead reeds surrounded Manzanita Spring, a natural spring that the homesteaders dammed into a pool. It was an unexpectedly placid spot among the desert plants, in site of El Capitan and Guadalupe Peak.
The springs allow trees to survive that would normally have no chance under the Chihuahua Desert’s conditions. With the clouds and wind, there was no concern about running into the park’s abundant reptiles.
The trail was pretty heavy with scat loaded with pine nuts, as the pinon pines grow well in this environment. Some animal had gorged itself when the nuts were plentiful.
The wind rustled in the reeds, sometimes rippling the clear water in Manzanita Spring. Plants grew on its bottom, easily visible with the spring water's clarity.
A historic sign showed that the spring pond had been large enough to float a canoe, although its 21st century shoreline seemed a little cramped for any watercraft. Plus, the rangers would not like that choice at all.
One virtue of leaving the Guadalupe Mountains westbound is getting to enjoy them from a number of different views for the next 50 miles. No one can appreciate the august appearance of El Capitan until it is framed in front of Guadalupe Peak.
By the time it disappears from distance, the Guadalupe Mountains have the chance to show off every angle.
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| From 2014. I had to watch it go from the rearview this time. |
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