Painting in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Far west Texas is fascinating to me. Maybe because it’s totally opposite from the climate where I grew up – north Georgia and east Tennessee. There, in the “Old South”, it is always wet and green. I remember those cool, damp summer evenings when the dew would cover the grass like frost.
West Texas, the Chihauhaun Desert in particular, is bankrupt of moisture…it is dry and dusty, with another layer of dry dusty air on top of that. To say water is scarce is an understatement. However the land has it’s awesome, unique beauty. A one of a kind place full of mystery and intrigue.
My wife, her sister, her mother and I made a trip out to the Guadalupe Mountains for a few days in October, 2012. The Guadalupe Mountains National Park is right near the Texas-New Mexico border. We ran up and down the road between Carlsbad, New Mexico and the park. During these 3 or 4 days, we saw virtually no one. After living here in the rat race of DFW, I thought to my self ” I could get used to this quietness, the solitude and wide open spaces. It was a great place to paint, and I took my easel with me and was able to set up a few times and paint.
12 x 9 Plein air oil on panel painted of a view of El Capitan of the Guadalupe Mountains
One day we went on a short walk down a trail that was to lead us to a spring, Smith Spring. An oasis in the desert. I voiced my opinion that I had my doubts. It was about a mile to the spring, but I could see nothing in the open country that I thought could be the location of a spring. We were in the desert. Agave plants, cactus, rocks, short, stubby juniper trees and not much else.
Looking up at the Guadalupe Mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert – a beautiful spring is a couple thousand feet beyond the dead tree.
But as we neared the 3/4 of a mile mark, the trail came alongside a small ravine and then followed along the edge of the ravine. The ravine begin to deepen, widen a little and then, almost like passing through a curtain into another land, we were surrounded by huge Ponderosa Pines, and Sawtooth Maples. Yes, Maples in the desert, right on the banks of a beautiful spring. There are some words I don’t use much, and enchanting is one of them. But, this place was kind of enchanting. Clear cold water coming out of the barren mountain side. Life giving water in a dry and parched land.
I am always amazed at God’s creation; how He provides, even in what seems like hard or impossible places. It’s a reminder of His “common grace”, that grace He gives to all living creatures. It says in Psalms 107:35 “He changes a wilderness into a pool of water, And a dry land into springs of water”. Smith Springs in the Guadalupe mountains was an excellent illustration of that provision.
Smith Springs is the ONLY water supply for miles around. The Mescalero Apache’s of that region used this spring, as did the Buffalo Soldiers the Government sent to the area to contain the Apaches. A variety of wildlife drink from these waters. When you read a bit of the history of the place you find out that several battles have been fought to control that ground, that supply of water in the desert.
If you were wondering in this desert dying of thirst and you didn’t know this spring was there, you would probably walk within a thousand feet of it and miss it. But it’s there, giving life to all who go to it and drink.
When I think about a spring in the desert, it reminds me that this is really the entire message of the Bible…living water (Christ) is available for any who will simply drink.
Once we were at the springs the air was cool and everything was covered by a canopy of tree. Ferns, large Sawtooth Maples and dragon flies right there in the Chihauhaun Desert. It was really amazing.
Ferns, dragon flies and sawtooth maples on the bank of Smith Springs in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
When we begin to head back in the direction we came, in just a few feet we had passed from the sanctuary of the ponderosa pines and maples into the dry heat of the Chihauhaun Desert.
El Capitan rises in the distance. A few miles to the right of El Capitan is Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas. It rises 8,751 feet above sea level.
