Photos from Guadalupe National Park July, 7, 2021, in Culberson County, Texas. A sign on U.S. 62/180 states Guadalupe Mountains is home to big tooth maples, velvet ash, junipers ponderosa, Douglas firs, and pine. Black bears, mountain lions, and deer make the mountains their home. Excavators have found spearheads, pictographs, and human remains with the bones of bison, Dire Wolf, and musk on in the cliff caves. Carbon-14 dating of the remains indicate humans occupied the area 12,000 years ago. Legends of hidden gold in the mountains go back to Spanish rule and that Apache Chief Geronimo believed the richest gold mines in the western world lay hidden in the Guadalupes. Geologically, the Guadalupe mountains present exposure of the Capitan Reef, formed by algae, sponges, and other ancient marine life during the Permian Period (over 200 million years ago), when much of West Texas and New Mexico were part of the Permian Sea. For centuries, El Capitan has served as a guidepost for Native Americans, Spanish explorers, U.S. Calvary and geologist.
