Day 2 Pine Springs Campground Guadalupe Mountains National Park Salt Flat, Texas

We packed our lunch and drove to the Frijole Road entrance to the park.  We hiked the Smith Spring Trail. 

We passed the Manzanita Spring.

The trail was initially a wheel chair accessible trail.

As the trail progressed it became more challenging.

We took this game trail down into the wash and had to climb back out and then back in and then it was too steep to get back out so we turned around and hiked back the way we had come.  It was pretty and challenging so it added extra adventure, activity, and distance to our hike!

We saw a group of 6 female mule deer far above on the hillside.  They looked large with fawn…it is spring!

This fossil in this rock is a reminder that all of this was undersea 270 million years ago.  The Guadalupe Mountains are actually the remainder of a reef.

This is Smith Spring.  We are in the Chihuahuan Desert.  This spring was important to the survival of the people who lived here.  The area is surrounded by lush green trees. 

The views were spectacular!

After our hike we were looking for a nice place to have lunch.  We drove into New Mexico and to the southern edge of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  There was a place to hike to a cavern here but you can only go on a ranger guided tour.  It was a nice picnic spot.

Wild turkeys.

We drove to Whites City to refuel the Jeep and then headed back “home.”

We had tortellini with shrimp and peas in a lemon, garlic, butter, parmesan sauce…so yummy!