The Hightpointing Officially Begins

Scott wrote the last post so I guess its my turn now. For some reason Scott got the idea that we should do highpointing (I think he was just trying to make me exercise). So we (mainly Scott) planned this epic roadtrip of the western states that involved several highpoints, many state and national parks, and a family reunion. We even trained for it at the Rec Center at TAMU. (Picture Scott sweating gallons on one of those escalator-like stair climbers, while wearing massive hiking boots. Bang, bang, BANG!) We set off the Monday after school got out in May 2006 and did not get back to College Station until one day before teacher inservice started for me in August. We put over 10, 000 miles on the Subie in 3 and a half months.



Our first highpoint stop was at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas. When we got there we hiked up the Smith Spring trail. It was hot even in June, but the water from the cold spring felt very good.

(SP starts)
After convincing ourselves to leave the little oasis and brave the pummeling from the sun we were treated to some good views, deer and lizards. No pictures of the deer, but I think one can imagine them well enough.
(SP ends)


(The Horned Lizard aka Horny Toad, the state lizard of Texas)

Guadalupe Peak:
May 31 2006
We camped over night, then woke up super early the next day (4 am). The hike was actually really pretty because it started out in west Texas desert vegetation,


passed through a pine forest,

and the summit was windswept, misty, freezing cold, and covered in ladybugs.


We reached the summit at 8:20am and quickly huddled together for the summit picture. We were back to the car so early that we decided to drive off to Carlsbad Caverns.