Back In The Habit

For the first week of our summer trip we came to the Carlsbad NM area to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The Guadalupe Mountains (and Carlsbad Caverns) were once a reef growing beneath the waters of an ancient inland sea 260-270 million years ago.  During that time a tropical ocean covered portions of what is now Texas and New Mexico. Over millions of years sponges, algae, and other-lime secreting marine organisms precipitated from the seawater.  Along with lime, they built up to form the 400-mile-long horseshoe-shaped Capital Reef.  Eventually the sea evaporated.  As the reef subsided, it was buried in a think blanket of sediments and mineral salts.  The reef was entombed for millions of years until a mountain-building uplift exposed part of it.  Today this ancient reef complex towers above the Texas desert in the Guadalupe Mountains. 

After more than a year of inactivity, we were finally able to go desert hiking again.  To ease ourselves back into the heat and altitude, we took the Devil's Hall Trail, a short 4 mile, moderate hike.  The trail went up and along the top of a wash 

then down

and along the bottom of the wash itself.

The wash ends at the wall in the distance.  We stopped here and retraced our steps.

Along the way we saw lots of evidence of the ancient reef.  It was easy to imagine these rocks on the bottom of a shallow sea, with beautiful corals attached and colorful marine life crawling over them and fishes darting in and around them.

Interesting stuff we saw included a heart-shaped cactus, 

a little lizard soaking up the sun,

several beautiful Texas Madrones

and one ugly one covered with graffiti.

Several trees got creative with their roots.  When they couldn't go through a rock, they went around. 

One more hike tomorrow.

Louise and Duane