Guadalupe Peak — Attraction in Carlsbad

Ok. So my husband and I run half marathons and so I’d say we’re in above average shape. Moderately good shape. This was super hard and took us 7.5 hours. 4.5 hours up (a few 5-10 minute breaks included), 3 hours down (no breaks) I thought we would be at the lower end of the average time window of 6-8 hours, but that just shows how little I knew about hiking a mountain!

So let me break it down for you, this trail has three equal-ish parts. Part 1, you will see, is titled “Oh look! More stairs!” You will climb stairs made of rock, then you’ll climb more (bigger) steps made of rocks! You’ll turn a bunch of corners and say to your hiking buddies, “ oh look! More stairs!” Whoever blazed this trail looked for the biggest flat rocks they could find, turned them vertical, and said “here is a stair!” Part two is titled “Switchback, then switch back again!” There are so many switchbacks you’ll lose track of how many you’ve hiked. Have we turned around thirty times? Forty? Like anyone could even know that. Just when you think you must be getting close to the top, you enter the last mile called “Never ending craggles.” Now craggle isn’t a word, but it means giant craggy rocks that you have to scramble across while trying not to twist an ankle or fall to your doom. The craggles seem to never end. Hence the name. Finally, you reach the top! The stairs, switchbacks, and craggles were all worth it! Look at this view! We hit the summit on a particularly glorious day. It was about 60 F at the top with little to no wind. I think this is unusual, so we surely appreciated it and spent about 45 minutes at the top.

The way back down should be easy, right? Well, it’s less demanding on your cardiovascular system for sure, but it’s still challenging to get over those craggles and not twist your ankle or fall to your doom, and the really huge steps down are hard on the knees if you have even a little bit of achiness in your knees. We took it slow and careful and the trek down took us 3 hours with no breaks. So, is it worth it? Yes. Absolutely. I’m so glad we did it! This was our first mountain hike. It is super tough even if you think you’re in good shape? Yes! Do you really need hiking boots? YES! Are hiking poles necessary? Yes! I don’t know how people kept their balance without them. I’d say 75% of the hikers we saw had them.

Last thing, I know some people hike to find solitude in nature. I bet there are times you could find solitude on Guadalupe Peak Trail, but spring break isn’t the time. We were never more than a few minutes away from other hikers. We didn’t mind at all, I actually felt safer with others nearby in case of emergency, but if you’re looking for peace and quiet, don’t go over spring break!

Enjoy...

We made it to the top of Texas, the highest point, Guadalupe peak at 8,751 feet above sea level. It was a long 10 hour trek of 9.7 miles. (We parked half a mile away from the trail head) This is how we spent our Thanksgiving.

Mountains will test your limits, they will test your mind, your will power, your body. There were a couple times I wanted to give up and turn back due to fear of hiking down at night. We had hiked up 2mountains before finally reaching the highest one. I remember the first time around the bend of one mountain we saw another and thought, omg... again after we reached around a second mountain, we still couldn't see the peak. There was one time in particular I wanted to give up, it was about a quarter of a mile to the peak, the trail became narrow, steep and rocky. There was a huge Boulder we had to climb around, the footing was only a few inches wide enough for one foot at time, if you lost balance you would fall off the short cliff into the mountain terrain. I was scared, I was tired, I'd had been trekking for 5 hours already! My partner went first, I said no I'm not doing that, I don't want to fall. Another hiker heard me and said the peak is right there if you made it this far you can do it. Sure enough I climbed around the Boulder. One short zigzag of steep rocks was the peak! Another hiker at the top who passed us earlier cheered us on as we stepped foot at the top. The views were worth it. The feeling of accomplishment was worth it, standing up there, clear skies, calm winds, the whole mountain terrain was beneath us, we were looking down at the other mountains. It felt empowering, this mountain that blistered our feet, scraped our knees, cut our gloves, this mountain that I wanted to give up on. We were standing at the summit.

The way down, I was forced to face my fear of hiking in the whistling pitch black night. The mountains blocked Any light that the moon or stars would provide. Our flashlight was enough to guide the next step but several times we questioned if we were going down the right way. Having to embark the journey of decending in the black was terrifying. I rolled my ankle on a misstep on a loose rock. All I wanted to do was get to street level. I ignored the pain and kept trekking, thankful for these trekking poles I bought a couple weeks back. Finally we reached steet level. The end of the trail head. Hiked half a mile back to our car sat down, took it all in. Holy shhhh. We did that. We...

Update - Also hiked this with my kids - 16, 14, and 12 in July 2024. They loved it!

Hiked this with my wife Aug 6th, 2023. We have 103 years between the two of us 54m / 49f. Neither of us work outside, exercise regularly, go to the gym or hike regularly. I won't lie... it was strenuos - but we made it! We started up at 6:15am just before sunrise, took 6 bottles of fluid each (16-20 ounces) and used it all. We averaged 54 minutes a mile first 3 miles. Last 1.4 miles was the hardest. First mile is hard but last 350 feet of elevation was brutal. It was 76 degrees when we left the trailhead - 80-ish on mountain top. We got up in 4:40 hours total. Going down at midday in full sun the temps soared and by the time we got back to trailhead (taking several breaks) 3 hours later it was 103 degrees.

Some suggestions if you are not "in shape" and decide to make the climb: Hydrate a few days before you go. Take more water than you think you'll need - we took 6 gatorades and 6 water and could have used 8 each. We used tennis shoes but hiking boots would have been better (we're amateurs). You'll get some shade on the way up if you're early but practically none at mid-day going down. Cell service is spotty but we did have moderately good signal on the peak (Verizon). Take frequent breaks - don't "attack" the climb the first mile or you'll wear yourself out - save some energy for the last mile. The view from the top is phenomenal. We hiked Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park (highest marked trail - 12,324 feet) last year, exactly a year ago - our anniversary :) with a 2,850 elevation gain and 8.9 mile round trip. This hike was definitely harder at 3,000 feet elevation gain and 8.8 mile round trip, and I think the view was better here at Guadalupe Peak. One final note, if you use a smartwatch to track your progress don't be disappointed if when you get to 4.4 miles you're not there yet - I believe taking smaller steps than you normally would throws off the distance tracking so our watches said the trip was 5.11 miles instead...