The Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness

A hiker stands in Shumard canyon.

NPS/Laurence Parent

What Is Wilderness?

“It is not for the sake of any privileged few that we are thus working so strenuously for wilderness preservation, but rather for all Americans. We feel that the privilege of a wilderness experience is something to which every American is entitled, including those who are not yet born. There is no person that we should like to see excluded.” - Howard Zanhiser, 1957

Wilderness is an area “…where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain…”

The Wilderness Protection Act of 1964 established a new category of federally-managed public lands. Wilderness areas would forever be preserved as large, roadless tracts where mechanized vehicles and equipment are not permitted, where permanent evidence of modern human occupation is not allowed, and where future development is not considered. A Congressional act signed into law by the President of the United States is necessary for land to receive a wilderness designation.

In designated wilderness, facilities and improvements such as trails, signs, and campsites may be provided only where they are necessary to protect resources and the public's health and safety. Wilderness areas offer opportunities for a primitive and unconfined recreational experience. They provide visitors with greater solitude and quiet, with opportunities to explore where the land is kept in as wild a state as possible.

The Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness

In 1978, 46,850 acres of the park’s high country were designated as wilderness by Congress. The 2012 Guadalupe Mountains National Park General Management Plan includes an eligibility assessment that deems an additional 35,484 acres of lower elevation park backcountry as suitable for consideration for wilderness designation. Designated and eligible wilderness comprise 95% of the park’s area. The lands deemed eligible for wilderness will be managed to protect their wilderness character. "Wilderness” refers to both designated and eligible wilderness.

The Guadalupe Mountains Wilderness includes both desert and montane systems. The Guadalupe Mountains rise more than 5,000 feet from the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert lowlands. El Capitan, the park’s most striking feature, is a 1,000-foot-high limestone bluff visible for more than 50 miles. Nearby Guadalupe Peak, at 8,751 feet elevation, is the highest point in Texas and the park includes eight of the ten highest points in the state. The park’s isolation from regional cities and towns preserves scenic vistas and exceptional opportunities for solitude, as well as rare and valuable flora and fauna. Abundant wildlife and clear springs remain relatively unhindered by human influence, and the overriding forces of nature are evident throughout the landscape. A system of trails and primitive campgrounds provide visitors the opportunity to experience wilderness in settings ranging from Chihuahuan Desert scrubland to lush riparian woodlands and cool conifer forests. World-renowned and well-exposed geologic resources dating to the Middle Permian Period can also be found throughout the wilderness.

Designated and eligible Wilderness in Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

NPS