We took a spur of the moment trip to Guadalupe National Park. When we arrived it was very late Friday night, so of course the campsites were completely full! There was literally no extra room. We decided to drive down the road and pull into a picnic area. Good thing they didn't have any "no camping signs" posted because we camped! But then...the wind got the better of us. We set up our tent and tried to sleep, but the wind coming off the mountains and blowing into the valley was just not working. The wind was so strong that we thought our tent poles were going to snap. Then 2 am rolled around and we still weren't asleep!! We finally had had enough. We grabbed our sleeping bags, put the tent poles down and slept in the car. It was heavenly. The wind was still strong, but at least it was quieter than sleeping in the tent!
In the morning, we packed up our poor tent that did not (thankfully!) blow away, and spent the day hiking! It was awesome. We hiked many trails and was able to see lots of cool history like old farms and ranches that use to be in the National Park, but then the owners donated it to the park. One ranch used to be owned by a Wallace E. Pratt and he was a geologist! In the park they still have his old cottage in great condition that you can hike to up in one of the canyons. It was complete with water and electricity in the middle of no where! His family needed to drive jeeps to get to their house. And the really cool thing is Wallace E. Pratt made his own plane and flew all over the world for his work. It's pretty neat. Sometimes I imagine Colby and I traveling to these cool geological places for "work." hahaha I would love that!
If you just dying to know more about this cool guy the national park service has lots of info about him :)
https://www.nps.gov/gumo/learn/historyculture/pratt.htm
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| Devil's Hall |
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| McKittrick Canyon - This is where Wallace Pratt lived! Beautiful |
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| Wallace E. Pratt's cottage |
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| Smith Spring Loop |
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