Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Have you ever heard of Guadalupe Mountains National Park? Yah, me neither. It straddles the border between New Mexico and Texas along that little section that points west. I almost missed it again, but this time as I was plotting our path, this park jumped out at me. We absolutely love national parks, so I couldn't pass this up and I'm so glad we went. The drive there from Monahans Sandhills State Park was really pretty in places.

We stopped at the Pine Springs Visitor Center for Jr Ranger books and to see the displays before driving to the McKittrick Canyon trailhead.

We planned to hike the Nature Trail, but decided we wanted to check out the McKittrick Canyon Trail instead. It's a long one, but we just hiked for a couple hours and returned. 

At one point the trail drops into a wash, where we found lizards hanging out among the rocks.

Southwestern Fence Lizard

Greater Earless Lizard (left)    An unidentified blue-bellied lizard   (right)

After this we spent the night in the Las Cruces Walmart. In the morning the Daddies took all four kids to White Sands National Park while Denali and I did some birding from the RV. A Gambel's Quail was calling just 10 feet from our window, followed by Verdin and a Ladder-backed Woodpecker!

The kids had fun sledding at White Sands. It looks like snow!