It's very often not the first national park to come to mind but a west Texas local attracted a record-breaking number of visitors last year, the National Park Service said Feb. 18.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year, counted about 243,000 individual visitors in 2021, the park service said. That's a 28% increase over pre-COVID 2019, and an 8% increase over 2017.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park Superintendent Eric Leonard in a 2020 photo
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"While the park is often overlooked, our proximity to El Paso and communities in southeast New Mexico and central Texas means that most weekends regularly see hundreds of hikers making the ascent of Guadalupe Peak," park Superintendent Eric Leonard said in a National Park Service release. "The Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness is the largest in the state of Texas and allows visitors to experience personal challenges and seek solitude in rugged and remote desert and mountain landscapes."
Leonard has been superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park since late August 2020.
Guadalupe Mountains National Park, headquartered in Salt Flat, Texas and within the West Texas Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion, boasts brilliantly white Salt Basin Dunes, reef mountains and grasslands.
One of the most spectacular places to visit in the national park is Guadalupe Peak, also called "Signal Peak," which at 8,751 feet above sea level is Texas' highest natural point, with an elevation of 8,751 feet above sea level. Hiking to the "Top of Texas," a very strenuous 8.5 mile through high desert and high elevation forests, takes six-to-eight hours, rewards the intrepid visitor with a spectacular view of the Guadalupe Mountains range and desert.
Considered one of the "last traditional national parks," Guadalupe Mountains National Park turns 50 this fall, a half-century since the park's establishment Sept. 30, 1972. The park plans to mark the anniversary with activities throughout the year, and visitors are encouraged to plan ahead "and arrive prepared to enjoy this rugged and remote place," the news release said.
The park tends to be its busiest in the spring, March to May, and in the fall and into winter, September through December, according to information at the National Park Service website. Parking and developed camping may be full during those times and also on weekends and during holidays throughout the year. Camping spot reservations are required at Pine Springs or Dog Canyon campgrounds.
Securing a camp spot and preplanning places to go, will make the park, its Frijole Ranch Museum, the Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness area and the almost 2,000 acres of salt dunes far easier to explore.
