Guadalupe Mountains, Day 2
Today we hiked 11.3 miles around the base of El Capitan and took the Salt Basin Overlook trail back to Pine Springs. We left at 8:35am and we were back at 3:05pm - 6.5 hours. Not bad since Kevin took about 50 pictures. El Capitan is the most prominent mountain in the entire park - not the biggest, but certainly the most regal and majestic. Every 1/2 mile we would catch a completely different view of the 8,000 foot king, and each time it was mesmerizing. The sun almost seemed to shine just for it.
We had a giant wind coming from the west. On the way back, it was so strong that it knocked me over twice (I was facing it to see how strong it was). We think the sustained winds were well over 50mph with gusts about 60. But this was only for several sections which were exposed to the west wind. So for lunch we chose a nice spot along one of the ridges looking down on the lowlands south of Pine Springs. Again, beautiful, truly beautiful. A cactus pricked James in the leg, and I didn’t show any signs of altitude sickness. We also saw several deer. Yesterday it was 20 rabbits. Hopefully Kevin’s pictures will turn out.