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 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. The park is in the same mountain range as Carlsbad Caverns National Park which is located about 80 miles to the north in New Mexico.
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 the cabin of Wallace Pratt, a petroleum geologist who donated the land in order to establish the park.
