Parks & Peaks with Peter

Get out there and Carpe Diem

Caves of Carlsbad National Park

White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe National Parks

Itinerary-At-A-Glance

Location: New Mexico and Texas, USA

Timeline: Wednesday, Mar. 27th – Tuesday, Apr. 2nd, 2024

It’s late winter in Toronto, and time for me to get away to warmer weather. Fortunately, my hiking buddy, Sandy, felt similarly and agreed to join me on a trip to the southwest, flying into El Paso, Texas, from which we could quickly access three national parks.

White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks are all within a 3-hour drive of El Paso and one another, so we packaged them together, along with a “rest day” of short hikes in the nearby high-altitude Lincoln National Forest of Cloudcroft. Fortunately, the highpoint of Texas is Guadalupe Peak, so we were able to combine a national park visit with a state highpoint opportunity.

I hope this itinerary is useful toward your planning and enjoyment of these three incredible U.S. national parks.

Carpe diem.

What’s Special About White Sands NP

White Sands is situated in the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. It is co-located with the White Sands Missile Range in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. White Sands became a National Monument in 1933 (upgraded to National Park in 2019), a decade before testing of the first atomic bomb took place nearby. The Basin is relatively flat, lying between the San Andreas and Sacramento Mountains, and is an enormous expanse – larger than my home state of Connecticut!

Scenic Drive: The park’s trails are all accessed from Dunes Drive, an 8-mile road which terminates at the trailhead of the Park’s signature trail, the Alkali Flat Trail (see “Hiking” below). There are several other trails, all very short and offer a brief peak at the desert. I particularly enjoyed the Interdune Boardwalk Trail, a 0.4 mile out-and back, which offers several trailside exhibits of desert flora and fauna. But the popular alternative activity is Sledding. Turns out gypsum is great for sledding as these particles, firmer than beach sand, prevent your sled from sinking in. We learned that plastic saucers are best, especially if they’ve been waxed on their bottom because gypsum is not particularly slippery. You can purchase sleds for $20-$25, along with wax, at the visitor center.

Hiking: Alkali Flat Trail is the only trail of any substantial length, a 4.9-mile loop rambling over and around the dunes. The Trail consists of a series of red fiberglass stakes placed about 100 metres apart. You decide how to get from one marker to the next one. I learned that a straight line is usually not the easiest path, given how the dunes undulate. I highly recommend this experience as the way to get truly immersed in the dunes.

Essential Hiking Tips: Do the hike early in the day to avoid afternoon winds and summer heat. Trail instructions posted everywhere implore hikers to turn back if windblown sands obscure the next marker. Visitors have become lost and died here from dehydration/exposure. Also, do not walk barefoot on the gypsum even though it is cool to the touch – your feel will soon find it too dry and abrasive.

Side-Trip: The hamlet of Cloudcroft in Lincoln National Forest, located about a 45-minute drive from White Sands, offers a cool and airy respite from the desert heat. It is perched at an elevation of 8,700 feet, literally about a mile above the Basin, and offers an array of hiking trails through fir forests. I particularly recommend visiting the Trestle Recreation Area in the Forest next to town, as it offers panoramic views of the valley and a fascinating history of the defunct railroad built to access these mountains from the Basin below.

What’s Special About Carlsbad Cavern NP

The Caverns: It’s all about the caves. Surface hiking is unexciting in this desert area. The caves, on the other hand, are spectacular. The cave system is among the most extensive and accessible in the world, stretching over 40 underground miles. There is all manner of features – stalactites, stalagmites, and whatnot – in a variety of shapes, sizes, and hues. It is other-worldly.

The entrance to the caverns is awesome – a yawning gap in the hillside offering a nicely-paved, 1.25-mile trail of multiple switchbacks descending over 750 vertical feet underground. That’s the height of the Empire State Building! There is an elevator option, but if you’ve got the legs, I strongly urge you to take this Natural Entrance Route down – you can catch the elevator to take you back up if you like.

Then comes the Big Room Route, a flat path of another 1.25 miles. Like the Natural Entrance, it is a self-guided experience and should not be missed. It is a loop trail hugging the perimeter of a room with an area larger than 14 football fields. There are numerous exhibits throughout this Route as there are along the Natural Entrance. I enjoyed the colorfully named sites – The Boneyard, Devil’s Spring and Bat Cave, for example.

Bats: Yes, bats are a highlight here during the months of May through October when they are not summering south of the border during the cooler months. Every evening, some 400,000 Brazilian free-tailed bats emerge at dusk to feed all night on moths and other insects. Visitors flock to the amphitheatre to await this mass exodus. It’s quite a thing.

What’s Special About Guadalupe Mountains NP

Guadalupe Mountains are spread across 86,367 acres of mountains, canyons, and scrubby desert. The Park houses the 4 highest peaks of Texas, one of the world’s largest fossil reefs, an imposing limestone wall capped by 8,085 feet by El Capitan, and McKittrick Canyon, considered by some as the most beautiful spot in Texas.

Scenic Drive: Highway 62/180 borders the southern edge of the Park and offers scenic views of the mountains, particularly El Capitan. The 4.5-mile access road to McKittrick Canyon is scenic, not spectacular. This area possesses a certain wild beauty, and the low visitation at this NP reinforces the remote, harsh quality of the land.

Hiking: There are two marquee hikes which I did on successive days. High winds are common here, particularly in spring when I visited, as it is one of the windiest areas of the U.S., so plan according to the weather:

  • Guadalupe Peak Trail: 8.4 mile out-and-back to the summit of the Texas state highpoint. The summit ridge can be very windy – gusts over 60mph are not uncommon – so plan this one for a day forecasted to be calmer.
  • McKittrick Canyon Trail: an out-and-back trail following a streambed to Pratt Cabin (2.4 miles each way), The Grotto (3.5 miles each way) and The Notch (4.5 miles each way). Considered by some as the most beautiful trail in Texas, it shines during fall foliage when the leaves on the oak and maple trees burst with color. I was here in April, a less dramatic season.

Lodgings and Dining Options

Here’s what we enjoyed:

Lodging: We booked two VRBO homes – with fully equipped kitchens – one in the hamlet of Cloudcroft and the other in the city of Carlsbad. Dining-out options were not too exciting in these parts, so we figured we would mostly cook in. The Cloudcroft VRBO was situated in Lincoln National Forest about 45 minutes west of White Sands – and nearly a vertical mile above the Park. If you don’t mind a bit of a drive, I recommend this locate as a counterpoint to the desert of White Sands.

The Carlsbad VRBO was chosen as the closest town to the Caverns (30 minutes) and Guadalupe (60 minutes). This is very remote country. Again, I recommend this choice of local, even though Carlsbad is not a particularly exciting venue.

Dining: For the most part we chose to eat in, however, one place is a standout:  Cloudcroft Brewing Company, serving excellent pizzas from its wood-burning fire and an excellent assortment of local and non-local beers on tap and in bottles.

The Dunes of White Sands (upper L & R); the Caverns of Carlsbad (lower L & R); On Top of Guadalupe Peak, Highpoint of Texas (middle)

Daily Itinerary

Day 1: Flying to El Paso from Toronto via Denver; Arrive at White Sands and Cloudcroft (Wednesday, March 27)

  • 8:00 AM(EST)-10:00 AM(MT): Flight from Toronto to Denver
  • 11:30 AM-1:30 PM: Flight from Denver to El Paso
  • 2:00-8:00 PM: Pick up Budget rental car and drive to White Sands National Park Visitor Center. Get updates from park rangers.
  • Evening: Shop for groceries, drive to VRBO in Cloudcroft, and cook a quick pasta dinner

Day 2: Hiking and Sledding the Dunes of White Sands (Thursday, March 28)

  • 9:00 AM-1:00 PM: Hike the Alkali Flat Trail. Lunch at trailside tented area
  • 1:00-3:00 PM: Hike Interdunes Boardwalk Trail. Observe dune sledders in action. Drive back to Cloudcroft.
  • 3:00-6:00 PM: Hike the Trestle Recreation Area, including the Cloud-Climbing Trestle Trail
  • Evening: Dinner at Cloudcroft Brewing Company

Day 3: Cloudcroft and Lincoln National Park (Friday, March 29)

  • 8:00-10:00 AM: Breakfast, pack up, and drive to trailhead in Lincoln National Forest on the outskirts of Cloudcroft.
  • 10:00 AM-12:30 PM: Hike the Osha Trail through the forest. Grab burritos at Allsup’s before heading to Carlsbad.
  • 12:30 PM-4:00 PM: Drive to Carlsbad VRBO, stock up on groceries
  • Evening: Relax, enjoy March Madness games, cook for dinner

Day 4: The Caverns of Carlsbad (Saturday, March 30)

  • 7:00 AM- 8:30 AM: Breakfast and drive to Carlsbad Caverns National Park
  • 8:30 AM-1:00 PM: Self-guided Tours of the caves.
  • 1:00-3:00 PM: Outdoor lunch at NP picnic tables overlooking the desert and distant mountains and drive back to VRBO

Day 5: Guadalupe Peak (Sunday, March 31)

  • 5:00-7:00 AM: Breakfast, drive to trailhead
  • 7:00 AM-1:30 PM: Hike to the summit of Guadalupe Peak; trailside lunch
  • 1:30-6:00 PM: Drive back to Carlsbad; rest/recover/refresh
  • Evening: Dinner [delete] at El Jimador (Mexican restaurant)

Day 6: McKittrick Canyon (Monday, April 1)

  • 7:00-10:30 AM: Breakfast, pack up and check out; drive to trailhead.
  • 10:30-1:30 PM: Hike up McKittrick Canyon Trail to Pratt Cabin. Due to freezing rain and high wind, we did not continue to The Grotto and The Notch)
  • 1:30-4:00 PM: Drive to El Paso. Check into Hilton Garden Inn
  • Evening: Dinner and March Madness at the bar of Hilton Garden Inn

Day 7: Au Revoir (Tuesday, April 2)

  • 5:00-7:00 AM: Arise and return car at El Paso airport.
  • 7:00-9:00 AM: Flight to Denver
  • 10:00 AM(MT)-3:00 PM (EST): Flight from Denver to Toronto

Resources

Trail Maps: For day hiking in the national parks, I find most useful the National Geographic’s series of Trails Illustrated Topographic Maps. I always have it with me in my daypack.

General References: Best advice for me on planning trips to national parks has come from two series: Lonely Planet and Moon Guides. For this trip, I relied on the Park-Specific resources below.

Park Specific: Often, the best resource is the one written as a labor of love by a local devotee, and I benefited from two in particular.

About Peter Hinman

National Parks lover and adventurer