We’re watching a low bank of clouds sitting atop Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Just before sunrise, they start to ease toward the western most prominent point of the entire range, El Capitan. Clouds billow off El Capitan like smoke from a volcano, and the light that touches the sheer sides of the peak acts as its fire.

El Capitan, reaching 8,085 feet high, is one of several strong visual highlights of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Its 1,000-foot limestone cliff is the result of long periods of erosion, breaking down elements of the ancient Capitan reef, according to the National Park Service.

Although not easily visible from the west looking east toward El Capitan, the park’s namesake, Guadalupe Peak, sits just above the face of the range. We can see 100 miles in each direction from the top of Guadalupe Peak. That’s no surprise, since the peak is the highest point in the state of Texas, topping off at 8,749 feet. As we look to the south, we face the foothills of the Delaware Mountains; when we turn north, we look towards New Mexico, the Lincoln National Forest, and the far stretches of the Llano Estacado. Each rich vista evokes powerful emotions that encourage my need to paint the area’s natural history on the canvas of my camera’s film.

The geological attractions of the park do not end here. Among the range designated within park boundaries, we can experience changes in environment as we hike the more than 80 miles of trails through desert habitat, low- and high-walled canyons, and arid grasslands, reminiscent of the Great Plains to the northeast. With no towns or houses in sight, I often feel as though I am alone on the planet. I use my camera, like a painter, to memorialize the sense of peacefulness and conductivity with nature I feel whenever I am in this vast environment.

One of the most popular visitor destinations to this part of Texas is nestled inside McKittrick Canyon. I am only one among thousands of visitors who takes many photographs of this unique oasis of diverse plant life closed in by high walls of limestone. Animal species also thrive in this area, as they do all over the park, including mule deer, foxes, a variety of bird species, and the elusive mountain lion. From this vantage point, I have taken close-up shots of specific plant and wildlife species, the patterns of sunlight and shadows on rock structures, the ridges of sand pushing against stone, or the texture of cacti against the smoothness of otherwise barren earth. These images provide me with a better sense of where I am and what I’m experiencing than simply reading about the area or hoping I remember what I’m feeling later.

While McKittrick Canyon draws many visitors to the park every year, the park’s 15 hiking trails attract visitors from all over the nation, and I have joined them many times. Popular trails and backpacking trips include the Guadalupe Peak trail, an 8.4-mile roundtrip hike that will take us to the highest point in the state, the El Capitan and Salt Basin trail, an 11.3-mile roundtrip desert hike that winds around the western foothills and basin flats of the range, and other trails that cross the range in to other specific areas of the park. Each trail has offered me ample opportunities to capture a part of Texas through the frame of my camera.

Closer to the far west side of the park, down from the steep slopes and walls of El Capitan, we visit the historic Williams Ranch. Accessed by high-clearance vehicles only, the Williams Ranch road follows part of the legendary Butterfield Stage Route that skirted the mountain range to the west toward El Paso, Texas. At the end of the road, the ranch house sits alone amid Bone Canyon and with a 3,000-foot cliff at its back. Once a working cattle ranch, the house represents a slice of time that signifies the enormous lands and hardships inhabitants faced. It is surrounded by arid, Chihuahan desert.

Even further west of El Capitan, with the peak as the backdrop, we find the Salt Basin Dunes, a collection of living dunes that is as unique in form as it is in environmental setting. Located approximately 48 miles away from park headquarters by road, the dunes require permitted access, but they offer us a unique perspective of the Guadalupe Mountains. Although seasonally windy, the dunes exude a true taste of solitude in the shadow of the mountain range. The varying shades of browns and tans and beiges mixed with intermittent greens reflected under the bright and hot sun provide endless unique shots for my “framed” photographic canvases. My intention, of course, is to share these “paintings” with those who have traversed, and will visit, the same area.

The Guadalupe Mountains were inhabited for thousands of years, sometimes by Mescalero Apache Indians and Buffalo soldiers; the area endured untold conflicts during western movement and travel, as well as ranching. Some of the most well-known areas of interest in the park preserve this human-nature interaction in structures such as the Pratt House on the McKittrick Canyon trail, the Williams Ranch house, and the Frijole Ranch, near the core of the eastern side of the park.

When we travel to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we can expect a wealth of historical adventure and natural appreciation. Whether we hike to “the top of Texas” or experience the area in a road tour by car, we will find something of interest. Although the history is fascinating and the flora and fauna are unique to the area, the West Texas panoramas amid El Capitan’s terrain offer infinite opportunities for the composition of visual art, using a camera for a paintbrush.