The Guadalupe Mountains are a truly unique mountain range with one of the best exposed geologic cross sections in the world. All of the formations exposed in the escarpment are marine limestone (carbonates) or sandstone, siltstones and shales (siliciclastics).

According to those who study this science, the outlay of this escarpment represents depositional and erosional events that occurred from 262 to 252 million years ago.

Too, this escarpment tells a story of the formation of an ancient reef on the shores of an inland sea. This ancient reef is today considered one of the absolute best example of a fossil reef anywhere in the world.

The sheer cliffs of the Western Escarpment were formed in the last six million years as the long buried rocks were uplifted along a fault zone that forms the eastern boundary of the Salt Basin west of the Guadalupe Mountains.

The Guadalupe Mountains reach their highest point at Guadalupe Peak, with an elevation of 8,751 feet and the highest point in Texas. The range lies southeast of the Sacramento Mountains and east of the Brokeoff Mountains. From Guadalupe Peak, the range extends both north-northwest and northeast into New Mexico.

This northeastern extension ends about 10 miles southwest of Carlsbad Caverns. The southwest tip of the range ends with El Capitan, a peak which is located east of El Paso about 90 miles.

The Guadalupe Mountains rise more than 3,000 feet above the arid floor of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Guadalupe Mountains are surrounded by the South Plains to the east and north, Delaware Mountains to the south, and Sacramento Mountains to the west.

After a very cold night, I drive south from the panhandle, then across southeast New Mexico on US 180 to Guadalupe National Park.

Awake, dress in my winter blues, drive to the birding blind and spend the next six hours taking photos of a lot of birds. I was able to get photos of at least two birds I have never seen before. I meet Jerry when he comes to refill the feeders and we talk while he loads them up. Afterwards, a large number of additional bird come to feed. I keep taking photos all morning, waiting for different birds to show up and this really works, some birds must get up later to come to eat.

Then, at one this afternoon, I leave the park and head back through Fort Davis, then south on SH 17 to Marfa, where I buy gasoline and then head west on US 90 through the heart of the Chihuahuan desert through two small communities and then north to Van Horn where I stop and buy gasoline again. Then, I cross under IH 10 and connect to SH 54 and drive north towards Guadalupe Mountains, connect to US 62, turn east to the national park. Along the way, I take photos of the Guadalupe Mountain range.

Driving up from Fort Davis, Texas, once I connect to US 62, which has very little traffic today and I come close enough to begin taking photos and several times along this roadway, I do so.

When I arrive in the park, I go inside to purchase a bumper sticker for my rear window, then drive to Pine Springs Campsite which is just a parking lot where overnighters park for eight dollars, or four if you have a senior pass.