As you turn your view away from El Capitan Peak at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and instead look out south and west into far West Texas, it's hard to imagine that where arid mountains and valleys now stand, there was once a tropical ocean some 260 million years ago.
Salt Basin is the name of the graben, or a down-dropped block of the earth’s crustal rocks created when faulting caused this downward movement some 26 million years ago, at about the same time Guadalupe Peak was uplifted more than two miles to its present position. The water that was present at the time evaporated, leaving gypsum and salt deposits at Salt Basin.
Despite the rather barren-looking landscape of the Chihuahuan Desert within Guadalupe Mountains National Park in far West Texas, there is life. Meet the Chihuahuan spotted whiptail lizard, a species native to the United States. Did you know, according to the New Mexico Herpetological Society, "All Chihuahuan spotted whiptails are female (parthenogenetic). Eggs are unfertilized and hatchlings are clones of the mother."
According to the National Park Service, "Smith Spring is one of several springs along the base of the Eastern escarpment. There is no reliable water in the high country. When it rains, water quickly enters a series of cracks and joints in the limestone, later emerging in springs like this below the escarpment. The water from Smith Spring goes underground just a short way below the spring, later reemerging at Manzanita Spring. At this point you have entered a lush riparian (streamside) woodland. This beautiful oasis is made possible by the water emerging from the spring.
Guadalupe Peak Trail is one of the most iconic, popular, and strenuous hikes in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This 8.4-mile (13.52-kilometer) roundtrip hike with an elevation gain of 3,000 feet (914.4 meters) to an awe-inspiring view over El Capitan and the West Texas landscape.
According to the National Park Service, "Guadalupe Mountains National Park protects the world's most extensive Permian fossil reef, the four highest peaks in Texas, an environmentally diverse collection of flora and fauna, and the stories of lives shaped through conflict, cooperation and survival."
Welcome to the entrance of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, location of the Pine Springs Visitor Center and the start of several iconic trails.
At 8,085 feet (2,464.3 meters) above sea level, the iconic El Capitan is the eighth highest peak in Texas and a part of the 260-million-year-old Permian Capitan Reef Complex, one of the most well-preserved fossil reefs in the world.
As you drive eastward from El Paso, Texas, toward Guadalupe Mountains National Park, one of the first things to catch your eye after about an hour’s worth of driving is the light-colored rock of El Capitan at the southernmost point of the park lifting itself high above the atmospheric haze. What you see as you approach this landform is the Western Escarpment of the Guadalupe Mountains, one of the best-exposed geologic cross sections in the world.
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