Guadalupe National Park

I have to admit that Guadalupe National Park wasn't on my radar as a National Park I wanted to visit. I'd heard of it but didn't even know it was in Texas (but I'm not from around these parts).  When we were planning our trip to Carlsbad, Asher asked me if we would do Guadalupe NP too.  I pulled out the map and what do you know??  It is super close to Carlsbad.  I'm a sucker for getting a pic in front of a national park sign... no matter what the cost ;)  So we worked a visit to Guadalupe into our very short trip.

We had to pull off the whole trip in 72 hours so we didn't have much time in Guadalupe.  In fact, we were probably only here a grand total of 3-4 hours.  It doesn't seem to be a popular park.  We were there on Memorial Day weekend and had the place to ourselves.  There is a little Visitor Center with a nice restroom and gift shop (and hopefully a rattlesnake bite kit!), but that's all.  There's no food or fanfare at all.  We chose to hike McKittrick Canyon because we were told it had the best views.  It was lovely.  I wasn't disappointed at all.  There were moments I felt like I was in Yosemite, just not as green and not quite as majestic, but still amazing.  

I do have to say that I was on the watch for rattlesnakes.  Big time.  If I was a rattlesnake, I would want to live in the Guadalupe Mountains.  So I was watching the path closely as the kids and I hiked. Some of the trail is nice and wide.  Some of the trail is narrow and that made me a little nervous.  I was trusting Boy Scout Graham who is very current on his first aid skills.  We didn't see a single snake and I was not disappointed about that either.

Tradition:  Sign pic... can you tell we are all very pale and haven't spent time at the pool yet?

One of my favorite things about National Parks is that they us proud to be Americans.

These flowers were scattered throughout the landscape and I was obsessed with them and took too many pictures.  But aren't they lovely?

The last time we were in a National Park, he was not taller than me!

His Dad hat.

Chris was laughing at me bc I had such a mom outfit on.  My pale legs don't make it any better.  In my defense, I didn't intend to wear tennis shoes, but again, the snakes made me want to pull out the close-toe shoes.  The fanny pack makes the outfit complete, I think ;) 

We decided we wanted to go back and hike the highest peak in Texas sometime soon.  But for this trip, McKittrick Canyon was good to us :)