2026 New Mexico – Day 5 – Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Megan’s Take

We headed to Guadalupe Mountains National Park today. It is much smaller and less visited, but we wanted to check it off our list. Today was a cloudy day, following overnight/early morning rains. (The ranger said it’s a special day, since it’s not often like that down here.)

We hiked the Smith Spring/Manzanita Spring loop trail, starting from Frijole Ranch.

It was beautiful of course, and the most beautiful part was the sudden stark contrast from desert vegetation to lush vegetation and greenery higher up into the mountain at Smith Spring. 

The kids (read: Emmett, who was struggling yesterday) had a much easier time with the 2.5 mile hike today. We made sure they ate solid breakfasts and packed lunch and all the snacks. Both kids were good hikers, and Emilia felt very proud of herself for knowing how to hike in the desert/avoid getting poked by cactus and for learning how to “pop a squat” when we didn’t have a travel potty. 

Phil’s Take

Even the lower Manzanita Spring showed a huge contrast to the desert surroundings. The vegetation looked much like it would around a pond back home.

Another landmark of note was the “lonely mountain” as we called it. I’m sure it has a name, but I have no idea what it is.

The view from the highest point near the Smith Spring back toward the valley was a better view than the mountains themselves, due to the clouds covering everything.

There was a much better mountain view further up north near McKittrick Canyon, taken from the location of the famous “pop a squat” training session.

Back in town, we were wondering if we were going to get caught in a hail storm due to weather headed our direction. The desert is a funny place though. We didn’t end up seeing more than a few drops on the truck after dinner.

Speaking of trucks, it appears that’s a popular vehicle around here. The percentage of trucks on the road is markedly higher here than just about anywhere else I’ve seen.

I should have taken a picture of the Lowe’s parking lot yesterday. Oh well.

The gallery with today’s photos is below,