We have checked the Guadalupe Mountains National Park box. Typically when we visit a national park we say to ourselves that we will absolutely have to come back to visit stuff we weren’t able to see. There is much (let’s call that most) of the park we did not see. But for whatever reason I am not hankering to get back here. I never say that about national parks.

Quite frankly, I didn’t know this national park existed until we got the national park map from our neighbors that highlighted all the parks we had NOT been to.

Here at Guadalupe there are about a dozen RV campsites, which are all first come first served, which is OK, but it is literally a parking lot. There were signs talking about a BLM place to camp but we couldn’t find it. It was supposed to be a turn at mile marker 10, wherever that is, but we never found it. We did however find a place to hunker down temporarily.

There is an enormous geological element to this park (not that there aren’t in most national parks), and it is really interesting about this being a reef on a much-distant ocean, and all the archeological finds that have been made here.

Clearly there are hiking trails galore and you could spend days or weeks here just hiking the trails into the Guadalupe Mountains. The terrain here, though, just didn’t ring my bell.

Most places we visit I have a few photos that I just think are the balls and can’t wait to share. I will tell you I have no such feelings here. But still an interesting place – maybe we need to give it another try some time in the future.