Guadalupe Mountains National Park

I camped 2 nights at Guad. Mtns. NP. It was pretty great. Started by hiking up a rapid ascent from the desert to the mountains.

I think it's pretty cool that it appears that you can't get into the mountains in the park unless you hike (i.e. you can't drive up there); this really makes it feel a lot more rewarding once you get there. Anyways, once I was in the mountains the climate and plantlife really changed. There were a lot of pines and some kind of juniper and it was much cooler.

In some places there were also like thickets of oak shrubs. There were only a few tree-sized oaks (none of them very big), but big groups of little oak shrubs that seemed to be staying that way perhaps because of the climate/altitude. They were mature enough to form acorns though.. so pretty interesting.
There were some great views of the desert from up in the mountains, and I ended up doing a loop through a nice amount of the park (didn't hike a ton, but did a few miles each day, so it was nice).

I camped up there for two nights. On the second night it rained for like 14 hours! I guess a cloud got stuck up there or some such. ;-) The last morning I was there a group of 4 deer came up to me.. I think they were wanting food but I wasn't giving. At first it was cool.. but eventually they were a bit of a nuisance... makes me think that other people have fed them before. Finally I did a steep descent in another part of the park and round make to by car.

In general it was a really nice place. It's weird that you don't hear about it very often compared to Big Bend. The two parks are kind of similar in that they both have mountains that ascend up from the desert and have a very different, wooded environment in the mountains. Now some differences. The general feel (to me at least) of the environment in the basin at Big Bend reminded me very much of the Hill Country for some reason.. a lot of juniper and some cacti hear and there. There were certainly some differences, and other wildlife was different too.. just the kind of feeling to me. The environment at Guad. Mtns. was a much different kind of feel... and just seemed more interesting to me. Also, the higher altitudes at Guad. Mtns. just give the whole place a different feel (and is a major factor in the environment differences). Also, like I said, you have to hike to be up in the Guad. Mtns., while you can drive into the Big Bend basin (which may be good for some people if you don't like hiking a ton). That being said.. Big Bend is really awesome too.. and it's more remote so you can see more stars and I didn't see any planes either (saw a couple at Guad. Mtns.). I also enjoyed the desert life at Big Bend more.. but I didn't experience it as much at Guad. Mtns.
Basically what I'm saying.. is if you're thinking of going to Big Bend.. consider Guad. Mtns. as a possibility instead.. they're both about the same distance if you're coming from most places in Texas and you also get to go to Carlsbad Caverns if you go to Guad. Mtns., since it's just a few miles away from them!