Guadalupe Mountains in One Day

Start your tour at Headquarters Visitor Center, where an exhibit and slide show introduce the park's wildlife and geology. Nearby is the ¾-mi round-trip, wheelchair-accessible Pinery Trail, which rambles to the Pinery Bitterfield Stage Station ruins. As you take in the sights, do not to touch the ruins' fragile walls; the site is quite vulnerable. Next, head to the Frijole Ranch Museum, built in 1876.

Once you're done gawking at the old structures, turn onto the paved trailhead behind the ranch house for the 0.2-mi stroll to the calming waters of Manzanita Spring, one of five springs that gurgle within a couple of miles of the museum. Park staff call such areas riparian zones. These oases supply the fragile wildlife here, and can sometimes look like Pre-Raphaelite paintings, with mirrored-surface ponds and delicate flowers and greenery.

Afterward, pay a visit to the famed McKittrick Canyon. Regardless of the season, the dense foliage and basin stream are worth the hike—though it's best to visit it in late October and early November when the trees burst into color. There isn't a direct route, but you can get here quickly by driving northeast from the visitor center on U.S. 62/180. Follow it to the gate at the western turnoff, which is locked at sunset. Head northwest through the gate (ignoring the service road) in your car, and you'll arrive at the canyon.

Take your time walking the McKittrick Canyon Trail that leads to Pratt Lodge, or the strenuous but rewarding 8.4-mi Permian Reef Trail, which takes you up thousands of feet, past monumental geological formations. Or traverse the easy, short (less than 1 mi) McKittrick Canyon Nature Loop.