Guadalupe County High Point Trip Report

BM Leon (6,339 ft)

Date: February 28, 2003
Author: James Wedekind

Despite Ken Jones' recent trip report I decided to checkout the "unlocked" red gate in Jobe Wymore's trip report. Unfortunately, it was securely locked and guarded by a sentry of bovines numbering in the hundreds. From the locked red gate I headed back to the gate located 0.5 mile north of point 5826.

Here is a detailed set of directions for the current route:

On the west side of Vaughn, locate West Main Street and signs for Vaughn RV park on the north side of the road. Turn north on West Main. Turn left at the T intersection, and follow the road as it turns back north, crosses some railroad tracks, and turns back east. Turn abruptly north (left), cross RR tracks, then turn abruptly west (left) all within 100 feet. Follow the paved road west. It will turn eventually turn to dirt and curve north around a hill. Continue straight ahead (north) at a triangle intersection. The road is labeled with a "Mesa De Leon" sign. Arrive at a cattle guard, and continue straight ahead. The main road takes a 90 degree turn to the left here, but you want to take the dirt track straight ahead. Confront a locked gate where your hike will begin. During dry weather this route would be passable in a passenger car.

From the locked gate the mesa is obvious (and has been since leaving Vaughn). Head straight toward the mesa and choose a place to ascend. Once on top of the mesa find the dirt road that is shown on the topo and follow it until you reach the HP area. I left the road and began wandering to the highest ground at a place where three railroad ties were constructed into a fence corner. Yes, that description sounds odd, but when you see it you'll recognize it! It only took a couple minutes once leaving the road to locate BM Leon, the old wooden structure, and the rock cairn that were at the highpoint.

Total hiking time was 2 hours.

Thanks to the previously-written trip reports, this hike was fairly uneventful. I did run into a couple antelope who were also interested in bagging the Guadalupe cohp. They obviously wanted the highpoint to themselves because when I arrived they left in a frantic hurry.