note: we visited guadalupe the same day we visited carlsbad caverns, which is easily doable depending on how active you want to be.

after we grabbed sandwiches at carlsbad caverns we hit the road and made our way to guadalupe mountains national park. the drive took a little over an hour, and it was cool to see the mountains in the distance slowly get bigger the closer we got.

our original plan was to do the salt basin overlook trail, but when we got to the trailhead as directed by alltrails it was closed. we decided to drive a little farther to one of the viewpoints while we discussed our other options. the viewpoint was great because it allowed an incredible view of el capitan, one of the highest peaks in the state of texas.

once we had our fill of the view, our next stop was the park’s visitors center to get a park pass hangtag for jeremy, for me to get some postcards, and for us to get the lowdown on the trails. once we had time to recalibrate, we realized the devil’s hall trail was going to be our best bet — it’s about a 4-mile out-and-back hike [2 miles in, 2 miles back], so we knew we could go as far as we wanted and turn back whenever the urge hit.

the trail is pretty well marked, with signs at each split indicating which way to go for each of the 4 trails. the only spot where it’s not clear is probably where it’s needed most, about a mile in where the terrain gets a little trickier and it takes some sussing out [and some kind people on their way back] to discern the right way forward. luckily since it was mid-afternoon we encountered a family on their return journey who pointed us in the right direction and gave us some tips on how to navigate.

along the way we marveled at the landscape and the stunning blue sky and the cool trees we saw. all told we did about a mile-and-a-quarter in before we decided to turn back — that was the point where you have to start scrambling over the rocks, and while we could have continued on we were both starting to get tired and knew we were only on day one of the trip.

we made our way back to the parking lot, cleaned off our shoes, and set off back to carlsbad. after a quick stop at cvs for a few essentials, we had an early dinner at taqueria jalisco, went back to the hotel for showers, and called it an early night.

both carlsbad and guadalupe were incredible experiences, made even more so by how different they are to one another for being so close in distance. we talked a lot about how cool it was to be able to see both places in one day.

know before you go:

• the park is barely in the mountain time zone, so chances are your phone will probably show central time when you’re there. there are signs in the visitors center reminding you to be aware of this
• phone reception isn’t great, so download or cache any maps, hiking trails, etc that you want to have access to while you’re there
• as far as we could tell, all the trails start from the parking area just past the amphitheater and branch off as you hike
• you technically also need a national parks pass to visit guadalupe, but unlike most national parks there was no checkpoint or spot where we were asked to show ours
• as always, carry lots of water. it was sunny and pretty warm when we were on the trail, and while our hike was fairly short a few of the others are 8 and even 11 miles long, so make sure you are prepared
• you can very easily visit both carlsbad and guadalupe in the same day, depending on how active you want to be. if you want to hike down or up in carlsbad, or if you want to do one of the longer guadalupe hikes, then you might want to consider splitting them into separate days. doing both in the same day made the most sense for our schedule but is by no means the only way to do it