First-day road log, trip 1, from Washington Ranch to Dark Canyon, Mosley Canyon, and Queen Highway, through Indian Basin and Rocky Arroyo, to Azotea Mesa and the McKittrick Hill Caves, and return to Washington Ranch by way of Happy Valley
— Lewis Land, David Love, and Victor Polyak

Trip 1 of the first day of the conference focuses on world-class exposures of the Capitan Reef along the eastern edge of the Guadalupe Mountains and on carbonate and evaporite facies of the adjacent backreef, on the way to and from the McKittrick Hill Caves. The road log for trip 1 serves as the trunk log for the other three field trips of the first day of the conference, each of which has a separate road log that begins where they diverge from Trip 1.Trip 2 diverges at the entrance to Washington Ranch, turning right onto Rattlesnake Springs Road to visit spectacular exposures of the Capitan Reef, fore-reef talus, and near backreef units in Slaughter Canyon, on the way to the mouth of Slaughter Canyon Cave. Trip 3 diverges at the entrance to Whites City, off Highway 62-180, and will proceed up Walnut Canyon to visit exposures of the Capitan Reef and backreef units, and culminates in a tour of Carlsbad Cavern, one of the largest and most geologically significant caves in North America. Conference attendees on trip 4 travel the farthest with trip 1, driving up Dark Canyon road to visit reef exposures at the mouth of the Canyon, and backreef facies farther up the canyon. Trip 4 diverges at the Queen Highway, turning left and driving into the high Guadalupe Mountains to visit Cottonwood Cave, which contains some of the largest and most spectacular cave formations outside Carlsbad Cavern itself.

The route for trip 1 follows National Parks Highway (62- 180) and parallels the Guadalupe Escarpment for several miles before turning west toward Dark Canyon. The first stop examines the famous exposures of the Capitan Reef at the mouth of the canyon. Stop 2 focuses on the pisolite facies belt and teepee structures near the Yates-Tansill contact in the near backreef section. Stop 3 provides excellent exposures of grapestone-grainstone facies in the Yates dolomite. From there, trip 1 enters the Seven Rivers Embayment and drives through an extensive section of the far backreef environment, consisting of redbeds and gypsum of the Seven Rivers evaporite facies. The final stop of the day will be the caves of McKittrick Hill, which are formed in the pisolite facies belt of the Seven Rivers Formation, a carbonate fabric almost unique to the Guadalupe Mountains region.