The America's National Parks Podcast is sponsored by L.L. Bean. This year, L.Bing is

the last is sponsored by L. L. Bien is joining up with the National Park Foundation,

the official non-profit partner of the National Park Service

to help you find your happy place in an amazing system

of more than 400 national parks including historic and cultural sites, monuments,

preserves, lakeshores, and seashores that dot the American landscape, many of which

you'll find just a short trip from home. L.L. Bean is proud to be an official partner of the National Park Foundation.

Discover your perfect day in a park at find your park.com. Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Far West Texas is a wild withdrawn place.

Set near the middle of nowhere, a hundred miles from El Paso. It's often

forgotten. There are no roads leading into the park, no gas stations, motels, or Walmarts nearby.

Nothing.

Visitation to the park broke the 200,000 mark for the first time last year, placing it consistently on the list of the 10 least visited

national parks. That's all fine with me, as it's one of my favorite places to escape from the

toils of day-to-day life.

There are no tour buses, traffic jams, packed trails. It's a place for solitude and reflection.

Wallace Pratt, an oil geologist, donated over 5,000 acres of his McKittrich Canyon

Ranch to the U.S. government with a stipulation that the canyon remain as wild as possible.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park opened in 1972

and has endured nearly undeveloped since.

McChitrick Canyon is open to visitors only during the day.

A small campground has no services.

There's not even a shower in the park or for dozens of miles in any direction.

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