McKittrick Canyon Hike ~ Desert To Resort 12Apr25

We did encounter a tour group on our McKittrick Canyon jaunt... a bunch of folks on a Rhodes Scholar tour featuring guided events around west TX and NM. They were nice, as were their guides, but we mostly stayed ahead of them all morning. We were basically near the Visitor Center when the gate opened at 8am to avoid the heat of the day. The hike was less strenuous than others recently but fantastic as to the change of scene and vegetation along the way. We crossed a wash often up to the higher parts of the canyon ~ it was alway white. We did find flowing water had surfaced on occasion and took advantage to wet our hats.

It got cooler with more shade from cliffs and trees as we entered the canyon proper. Texas madrone trees abound as did agave of all sorts. Ultimately we encountered not only juniper pines but large ponderosa pines as in our own back yard in COS.

We saw the Pratt Cabin ~ a wealthy guy had some nice grounds built 3 miles into the canyon. The "cabin" could be in a exclusive neighborhood today ~ very nice. He had pumped water from a nearby spring and entertained there. That's also why the initial trail was more like a road as it was initially cut to get guests to his getaway spot. It was beautiful; he chose wisely. We rested a bit and enjoyed our apples. The tour group caught up to us there and we continued on.

We next arrived at a grotto of sorts where there was an actively dripping cave. NPS had also built a number of picnic benches from indigenous rocks. It was a nice turnaround for us as we spoke to a backpacker coming down from his night on McKittrick Ridge who said the next 2 miles and 2Kft elevation were tough.

We left the grotto for our trundle back to the trailhead and encountered the heartier part of the tour group who'd been led on to the grotto too. As we emerged toward the visitor center I again thought the view to the desert below was familiar of our time in the Sonoran Desert.

We took it easy in the PM and used the Pine Springs cell coverage and wifi to download some TV shows for the evening. Tomorrow we head to Roswell.