re: Guadalupe Mountains/Carlsbad vs. Big Bend

I had one of the craziest days of my life hiking in Guadalupe back on December 27, 2005.

I had camped out onsite the night before, and I got up early to hike "The Bowl." For those who don't know, the base of the Guadalupe mountains is in the desert, but at the top, there's a flat area between the peaks that is full of pine trees. "The Bowl" is a great hike because you see very different climes so close together.

After I was up and about halfway across The Bowl, it started to snow, which was absolutely not in the forecast. It was beautiful to see the snow in the pines, but it kept on coming down, and it made the hike back down treacherous, as the snow covered the trail and I couldn't see where to step. I used a yucca stalk as a staff, but I still fell down at least a dozen times, and I counted myself very fortunate that I didn't break anything. Since I was hiking alone and there wasn't anyone else on that trail that day, I might have just frozen to death if I had broken my leg.

Making it down below the snow was such a relief.