guadalupe mountains

I'm working on a trip report about that area but here are the basics.

1. There is no reliable water that you can legally use. There is a spring fed creek in McKittrick Canyon. But its such a fragile ecosystem you're not supposed to us it. At any rate its only a couple miles from the trailhead so it wouldn't help much. Any other springs are off limits as well as unreliable.

2. If you look at a topo map there are several lollipop loops around the mountain basin. For example you could hike up Tejas Trail to Pine Mountain, do a loop around the bowl and go back (be sure to bag Hunter Peak if you do). Or you could do a loop starting from Dog Canyon (north side) and go back to that point. I've done several overnight trips this way.

3. If you want a longer trip I'd suggest hiking up Tejas Trail then go west on the Bush Mountain Trail around the western side of the mountains. You could overnight at several places depending on your schedule. On day two you could go out to Dog Canyon and pick up water. From Dog Canyon you could head south along the Tejas Trail. That would take you through the "Bowl" and past a couple side trips (upper McKittrick Canyon or Hunter Peak).

4. McKittrick Canyon is a great hike but its hard to make a loop with it. With a car shuttle I hiked north to south from McKittrick Canyon TH to the southern canyon by Guadalupe Peak (the name escapes me). A side trip to the "notch" at the top of the canyon might be work it if you have the time.

A word on water. In Midland locals don't drink the well water, its nasty and does a number on your GI tract (you'll think you have giardia). From stories I've heard the National Park may have similar issues. So I'd bring my own bottled water if I were you. And leave some drinks and snacks in the car, there are no facilities for a long ways.

I would suggest buying the Trails Illustrated Map of the area, it shows the campsites and is a great tool for planning a trip.

thanks luke,

im use to doing high mileage days in the mtns of PA, im just trying to get a plan together for march in the guadalupes. i am familiar to midlandvwater, thats where the inlaws live ;). will a filter help the awful water? or has the oil ruined it all? i have been using hiking and backpacking trails of texas by mickey little for mileage references. anyother little pointers you have will be greatly appriciated.

I don't know about filters, I tried drinking tap water through a sawyer and it seemed pretty nasty. I don't think its the oil so much as minerals from well water. There aren't any oil wells near the Guads that I'm aware of. Personally I'd just grab some bottled water, of course if you try to pick up water at Dog Canyon half way through a trip that might be an issue. Of course the water there might be okay, the north side of of the mountains has a different geography so who knows. If it was me I'd call the park and ask to speak to someone at Dog Canyon.

I would suggest not trying to do too many miles, with the water weight and rough trails it just isn't worth it. I think 10-15 a day is reasonable. By the way they recommend a gallon a day of water and you'll need it. I carried a gallon a day on all my trips even in cool weather and it was just about right.

Martin,
Luke has good info. The basic story is no water in the mountains so many folks do one and two night trips and criss cross to Dog Canyon and back. Check in with the folks at Big Bend Chat as they have many folks who also hike the Guadalupes too.

Hi Martin,

I'll also second all of what Luke said.

I was there Easter weekend in 2013 (end of March).

Day 0: Met friends at Pine Springs campground, ate cheeseburgers, drank some beers and slept under the stars.

Day 1: Drove 2 cars to Whites City, NM for breakfast at the Velvet Garter Saloon. Drove back to Pine Springs and dropped one car at McKittrick Ridge Visitors Center on the way. Hiked from Pine Springs campground to the Bush Mountain campsite via the Tejas Trail with a quick run up to Hunter Peak (definitely worth it if just for the rocks made entirely of seashells at 8400').

Day 2: Bush Mtn to McKittrick Ridge via Blue Ridge Trail and Tejas Trail. No water.

Day 3: McKittrick Ridge to McKittrick Ridge Visitors Center. Shuttle car (Ford F250 Diesel) wouldn't start because of bad alternator. Luckily one of us thought to store the cooler with remaining beers in the truck, so we sat in the parking lot and had a couple beers until someone one drove up in an equally large diesel pickup and gave us a jump. Shuttled back to Pine Springs, picked up other car and drove 500+ miles back to Austin.

It was a fantastic trip. I would guess it got down to 45* at elevation. Lots of trip reports warned of high winds but it was calm where we were. Had to carry 2.5 to 3 gallons of water each and drank it all before it was over. We saw a few people on the way up to the Hunter Peak turn off on Day 1. Nobody after that until McKittrick Ridge. One other group was camping there but there's plenty of room. Beautiful views both evenings.

But, like Luke said, no legal water anywhere but the campgrounds/ranger stations/visitors centers.

>" I am familiar to Midland water, thats where the inlaws live ;). will a filter help the awful water?"

A particulate filter won't help the taste. Granular activated carbon will.

If you find that running that water through a Brita filter helps the taste (and it will remove carcinogenic organic compounds like benzene), there are cheaper, cleverer ways to use activated carbon to treat water. An inline filter as are sold for refrigerators, could be used much like a sawyer mini in a flow-through configuration. Even lower tech and far cheaper would be to buy a quart of activated carbon at a pet shop (it's sold for aquarium filters), and placed in a MYOG "tea bag". You could repurpose an actual tea bag, or one of the eco-groovy reusable tea bags for people who fill them with loose tea. Or use any permeable fabric. Or a paper coffee filter wrapped around 2 tablespoons of carbon, twisted closed and secured with a twist-tie. Then toss it in the water to be treated (you'll need a pot or wide-mouthed bottle. The longer you leave it in, the more the water flows through the bag, the more completely it will adsorb the nasties from the water. Swishing it around or moving it up and down in the water would help. Such a "tea bag" would have plenty of adsorptive capacity for a week-long trip.

A faster, messier way would be to bring a coffee filter and the plastic holder for the coffee filter. Toss the loose particles in with the water for a few minutes, stirring it around occasionally (like "cowboy coffee). Then pour the whole, black mess through the coffee filter. Save the carbon for reuse. Again, it has a huge capacity compared to the parts per million levels of organics that can give water a bad taste and/or expose you to toxic compounds.