McKittrick Canyon, Guadalupe NP, TX, Oct. 22, 2014

The Guadalupe Mountains run from New Mexico west of Carlsbad into Texas. The Carlsbad side is famous for its caves while the Texas side is more quiet and is mostly wilderness. Cursory research showed that we were coincidentally in the area during the ideal time to hike in McKittrick Canyon. http://www.nps.gov/gumo/planyourvisit/mckittrick.htm

We first encountered a Google mapper, carrying a 40lb panoramic camera on his back


The mapping cameras are allowed in national parks, but not beyond wilderness boundaries. The trailhead area is scrubby and looks similar the Chihuahuan Desert in Big Bend. Here's a Texas Madrone tree larger than we saw in Big Bend.


And a prickly pear with flowers.


But soon the canyon turns to maple forest.


We were early in McKittrick's touted fall foliage season.



We stopped at Pratt Cabin, residence of geologist Wallace Pratt from 1932-1957.

Pratt's donation led to the establishment of the national park in 1966.

We continued on to the Grotto, a mini cave with limestone formations.




We walked back along the streambed. There had been a major flash flood in September, with debris wrapped around trees to a height of at least 6 feet.


More fall foliage along the streambed.




Farther down the canyon was a dead century plant stalk.


And near the trailhead, a tarantula


We then drove to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, where we attended the Solar Eclipse Conference for the next 4 days. It has been held since 2000 during years with no total solar eclipse. This location gave us the opportunity to visit some new places like Big Bend and Guadalupe on the way there.

I'm forwarding these trip reports to my in-laws, who are big fans of hiking/camping in Texas.

In fall 1989, I drove through Cloudcroft, past a small ski area (600 verts) with an old double chair just like the one still in use at Magic Mountain, VT. I remember thinking that it didn't seem to be in operation because the lift looked -- at least to my non-skier eyes -- to be in bad shape, although maybe it just appeared that way since it was off-season.

25 years later, it's still in business (at least according to the website) and with the same blue chair! Its latitude is only half a degree north of Mount Lemmon, AZ. Depending on snowfall, I wonder which of those two gets crowned in a given year as the ski area that's the furthest south in the U.S. and actually open.
http://www.cloudcroftskipalace.com/home.html

Edit: they were apparently open last season and claim to be the southernmost ski area in the country.
http://www.ktsm.com/news/ski-cloudcroft ... ter-season

Both times we drove by ski Cloudcroft it was after dark. I am not sure whether either Cloudcroft or Mt. Lemmon have snowmaking, and both are far enough south that more precipitation falls in summer than winter. Thus I suspect there are numerous years they don't open at all.

Cloudcroft is also overshadowed by Ski Apache near Ruidoso, which is higher with 2,000 vertical and 1/3 snowmaking coverage. It also claims to be the southernmost ski area, even though it's 32 air miles north of Cloudcroft. Apache probably has the second largest ski acreage in New Mexico, and I strongly suspect it's second in skier visits due to it being the closest decent size ski area to a lot of people. Apache is still far enough south to have the summer wet/winter dry climate. I was there in April 1993, a very big year for the Southwest, and everything was open, albeit with spring conditions.