Carlsbad

A couple of weekends ago we headed down to the Guadalupe Mountains near Carlsbad. Of course, we stopped by the Caverns first and "explored" the well-lit cave with a mob of other tourists on paved pathways with railings. It didn't really remind me of caving or give me that creepy feeling of being deep underground in an environment that humans simply were not intended to be in. But it is an enormous cavern!

Sunday, we headed out along Isolation Ridge in the Guadalupes. It was 50 degrees, cloudy and windy. Troy asked if it snows much in the Guadalupes. I thought he'd spent too much time in Texas if he thought that 50 degrees and clouds means snow.

 The next morning brought an answer to his question. Apparently he's not crazy.

We were not prepared for this. It was supposed to be warm, so we shivered all the way back to the trailhead. You can't see the 50mph wind in the photo (because we only stop for photos where we're protected from the wind), but you can tell it's there because the snow has been slammed into the sides of the plants not just the top.

After getting home, I asked the internet how often it snows in the Guadalupes and I found the park weather page, which tells me that we're lucky it was only 50mph wind and not 100mph. We were also lucky that it was snow and not a lightning storm. As we drove back down the dirt road that got us to this trail, we were hit with sleet, rain, hail and lightning. Glad we weren't hiking in that!