Guadalupe National Park

Beautiful sunny morning. We turn on our generator, perc our coffee, and watch the tenters trudge up the hill to wash their dishes -- we tented for many years and always complained that the tenters were put far away from the rest rooms while the RVers were close to the restrooms -- so I don't feel guilty at all -- we put in our time in the tent section :-)

After breakfast we drive down the road to stop at Pinery Station which was an old stagecoach stop for the Butterfield Stagecoach. We also stop at the Frijole Ranch & Museum to learn about ranchlife in the early 1900s.

Then drive to the McCintrock Canyon trailhead and do the 4.8 mile roundtrip hike. It was fairly flat but also fairly boring -- no wildlife, no desert flowers, very little shade, very little water. There were two old cabins to look at towards the end of the trail and we took a nice break at one point where there was a little water and shade. Our least favorite hike so far this trip; I guess we should have 'bit the bullet' and did the Guadalupe Peak hike.

We go out at night to look at the stars and continue working on our constellation identification. We still can't identify many, but Joe has taught us how to use our night sky map :-)