Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Profile of El Capitan from 40 minutes away

After staring at the profile of Guadalupe Mountains' El Capitan from the campground, it was time to get a closer look. Through the desert, past the sign that said "no services" for a half-a-tank's worth of gas, and back to Texas.

It's true that many, many things are bigger in Texas, and the mountains in Guadalupe National Park are - sort-of. Compared to my memories of the Rocky Mountains, these things looked like hills; compared to the Appalachians, steep, spine-covered giants. The height was not the attraction though. As with so many places this geology-nerd has visited, the most amazing thing about this place was how old it was.

The mountains themselves are an uplifted, ancient coral reef. Shoved up during an orogeny 20-30 million years ago, the rock we see today formed from the layers of sediments originally deposited during the Permian period roughly 275 million years ago. There are untold numbers of fossils from a time before the dinosaurs. 

This type of fossil structure is incredibly important to understanding what life would have been like on the North American continent, on the far edge of Pangea, before it all went terribly wrong and Earth had the worst mass extinction in the history of the planet.

Of course, I wanted to hike to see all the fossils from a massive, ancient coral reef. Of course, I wanted to touch history and feel soil or rocks leftover from a time before there were mammals. Of course, Piper was not allowed on the trails with high-point views or fossils. Most influential to our visit, I was terrified of a backcountry accident in a park that had no interior roads upon which rescue could quickly come save me.

Find the Pine Springs Visitor Center. See the dotted line to the Pinery Stage Ruins? That's a fully-paved, dog-friendly trail - and the only hike we could take in the park.

Piper leads the way to the ruins of a Pony Express waypoint.

I was astounded to find there was quite a lot of plant life in the desert.

El Capitan has a history of guiding the way through the seemingly endless desert.

We stayed on the trail nearest the visitor's center in the first national park of the trip that could truly be considered wilderness. The views were still spectacular and I'd love to come back some other winter and actually hike up to see the fossils embedded in the rock walls along the trail. 

One thing I've thought to myself time and again on this trip has been, "how did they even get here? Why did they come here?". Maybe it is because the Chihuahan Desert seems pretty inhospitable. Maybe it is because the path to get into a place is rugged and dangerous with the benefit of 21st century engineering. But people have lived here, arrived here, settled here, died here almost every here, for a length of time before we have even petroglyphs to discern.

This place was once a postal connection to the region beyond the mountains. Today, there are no roads that cross here, but horses and mail carriers didn't need roads.

Part of what got me on this journey is not knowing where I was supposed to be. How many other humans, in the course of history, have set out on a journey to find the destination that feels right? A lot. I wonder how many of them found it. I wonder how many of them were happy with their discovery. I'm not sure I've found my here yet. I honestly have no idea if I will. 

I would like to have a story that tells a story, a legacy like the ones of those creatures fossilized in the rocks of the Guadalupe Mountains. Libraries are full of the (non)fiction stories of people just trying to find their place in the world; I'm not unique. In a universe as vast as ours, I'd imagine almost nothing is truly singular. However, a universal scope is beyond my personal hula-hoop. Here, in this space, I'm venturing into the wilderness of what my life could be - even if it starts by taking the fully-accessible paved path while I build up my strength for the work ahead; the work of learning who I am and where I belong.

For stories of when I finally take "off the grid" trails, you'll have to keep coming back.

Life has been hardening here for millions of years, waiting to be refound.

Additional sources used to confirm specific details:

1. 1. USGS on Guadalupe Mountains
2. 2. National Park Service: Guadalupe Mountains