Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Windy!

 Remains of building for Stagecoach Stop

 Blue sky on arrival at Guadalupe Mountains

 Beautiful colours and textures of desert plants

 Wind warning at Guadalupe National Park Campground

 Dust moving in to Guadalupe Mountains

Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Monday, March 4^th

Our little convoy moved off at 8:30am today and we reached the Park which is about 150 miles from Marfa in 3 hours or so with stops for gas, propane, groceries, and a small Mexican restaurant in Van Horn where Dick treated us to brunch. It is so nice to be in a small homey café where the staff is friendly and they serve real food that tastes so good. 

As we got closer to the park, it was blue sky all around except for a big cloud on top of the Guadalupe mountains. RV parking consists of lining your vehicle up with the painted lines on the pavement parking lot and for $8.00 cash, you are all set. There is a nice visitors’ center, and washrooms for the campground but no showers. We watched the 20 minute video of the park and got in a short ¾ mile hike on the Pinery Trail that leads to what used to be a stagecoach stop for new horses delivering the US Mail along the Butterfield Trail.

At the visitors’ center we saw the weather forecast – there was a severe wind warning, with gusts up to 75 miles per hour at higher elevations.  As it was already gusting very strongly, it looked like it could be a very long night. I set up my trailer jacks so that they could help support the trailer in the rocking wind and hoped for the best. I also put in wheel chocks but the wind knocked them away. My glasses blasted off the picnic table where I was brushing Baloo, and disappeaed in a gully. That produced quite a hunt.

The dust had been bad in the distance, quickly obscuring the view in a brown haze, and now we could taste it, feel it on our skin. The wind became stronger, huge gusts that blasted down from the mountains and then simply disappeared, leaving an eerie silence. I asked the ranger if there were any buildings left open for campers if the wind was damaging but he said no. And then he told me that sometimes they had to close the highway pass, just below the campground because the wind got so strong it could pick up an 18 wheel truck and throw it over on its side. Thanks for that, I said, and walked away.

It is now close to 9pm, and the wind is still gusting. The ranger told me that in March the wind blows a lot. I must remember that for next time!