since we arrived relatively early yesterday, we spent the afternoon relaxing. we ate and then ate again. after food i had to worry about my near dead camera batteries again and so i went on a search for hidden plug connections. the campground said there was no power available, but where there is a vending machine there is a way. 
my interest wasn’t in the power aid they were selling but the lonely little power hookup in the back that wasn’t taken. i plugged in my camera battery and went back to the truck to read for a few hours. i’m about 3/4 finished with a book about diving called neutral buoyancy. this was a gift from charles and i must thank him for it because i have been enjoying the book very much. i must admit i don’t usually go in for diving books. but once i started reading this book, i couldn’t put it down. it’s a historic overview of the evolution of diving, from the first drawings and musings of a man walking underwater to cousteau and everything in-between. the writer has a sensibility that i enjoy very much. after reading until i couldn’t see anymore we prepared for bed. walking to the bathroom during the night i remember seeing the stars like it was the first time again. the night was warm and breezy, pitch black and the stars were glowing so brightly that you could even see the murky glow of the milky way. it made me realize some things in an instant. it made me think alot about my life choices over the past few years, and some of the things i’ve been missing caught up in the daily grind. the night felt very awake and alive, and so did i: things were good.
the next morning we planned on getting up at like 6am to go hiking again. well, we were a little late. i think we must have hit the trail around 9am or so instead. the sun was already hot, and during my short walk to the visitors center to pick up a map i was wondering what i was getting myself into. i was also regretting not getting up earlier as planned. after speaking with a man in the morning who had done several of the trails we decided to do a combination of trails that lead to hunter peak. this is the map we used:
we were camping at pine springs, so that was our starting point. we hiked up the tejas trail which was steep switch backs that wound around the front and then the backside of the mountain in a sort of upard U shape. the views were spectacular. the following sequence maps our journey visually:
the first shot is a view from the tejas trail of just shortly after leaving the campground. the second shot is a view of our penske truck at the campground from somewhere along the tejas trail. it’s the little yellow dot in the middle. the third shot is a rock structure looking back down the trail right after you take a sharp bend to the back side of the mountain. the fourth picture was taken from just about the intersection with the bowl trail. you can see the winding switch backs of the tejas trail below. you can also see the rock structure from the previous picture in the lower right. the road in the far distance is the highway we took to reach the campground. the fifth shot is from hunter peak at 8368 feet. we both crashed and ate our snacks and nancy took off her boots while i ran around snapping images. you can see the campground as a little square shape in the middle and the front side of the tejas trail on the far right in the middle. the sixth shot is taken on the bear canyon trail just shortly after starting the descent. this trail was extremely steep and rugged. it was very challenging to stay upright going down. the seventh and final picture is from the frijole trail looking back at bear canyon.
when we arrived i was a bit disappointed at first. the view looked liked typical desert mountain formations. but as we climbed the subtle qualities and dynamic changes in both landscape and vegetation really struck me. guadalupe mountains was really amazing. again, i feel like we barely scratched the surface here. i could have spent months exploring. it’s also frustrating trying to take decent pictures when you don’t have time to wait for the “right” light. but with that said, i feel very fortunate to have had the chance to visit this wonderful place, for any amount of time.
