Pre-conference field trip one: Guadalupe Peak trail, Guadalupe Mountains National Park
— Lewis Land

This pre-conference field trip is a hike to the crest of Guadalupe Peak, which at 2667 m (8751 ft) is the highest point in the state of Texas. This is a strenuous hike that involves a 13.5 km (8.4 mi) round trip and an elevation gain of approximately 915 m (3000 ft). Participants are advised to wear sensible shoes and pack plenty of water.

The Permian Basin region of New Mexico and west Texas, and the Guadalupe Mountains in particular, contain some of the finest outcrops of reef and reef-related rocks in the world. In this area, the Capitan Reef complex is dissected by a series of deep canyons, including Pine Springs Canyon, that cut across the regional facies strike at approximately right angles, thus providing exceptional cross-sectional views of the lateral and vertical relationships of depositional environments through time (Scholle et al., 2007). The hike will take us past the entire depositional spectrum of facies changes in Middle Permian (Guadalupian) rocks, from deep-water sands and limestones of the Delaware Mountain Group, past exposures of the Capitan Reef and forereef talus, to back-reef units of the Tansill Formation. The crest of Guadalupe Peak provides spectacular views of the Delaware Basin and the El Capitan edifice at the southern terminus of the Guadalupe Mountains.

The intent of this trail guide is to provide participants with a general understanding of the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the outcrops exposed along the way and to serve as an explanation of the impressive stratigraphy observed across the canyon. This guide does not presume to be a comprehensive elucidation of the geology of the Capitan Reef complex. Aspiring carbonate sedimentologists are referred to the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology’s excellent and exhaustively detailed guide to the Permian Reef Geology Trail (Bebout and Kerans, 1993) and are encouraged to experience that much more thoroughly documented hike in McKittrick Canyon.