Hike the Devil's Hall Trail

Great little hike with half the trail being in a dried up creek bed. Trail was not crowded mid morning. Get your park pass online.

Did McKittrick to Grotto in the morning, then Bowl and Hunter Peak, then started this hike at 5pm on Good Friday. It was very very windy. Half the hike was in a wash. Lots of scrambling. Glad I wore hiking boots for this. The views at the end were worth it. Some respite from the wind gusts and dust because the trail was mostly in a canyon. Total came to 4.2 miles with 900 feet elevation gain, and it took me a little over 2 hours, most of the time spent scrambling in the wash. Very popular trail, so there were lot of people there even in bad weather.

I went in by myself and made it to Devil’s Hall in 45 minutes, and to the end of it like 5-10 minutes later. If you only stop a few times, you could easily be in and out in 2 hours. I took my time when you get there- not sure if it was time of year but in late April I may have seen 5 couples total in that amount of time and got to stay in Devils Hall for about half an hour by myself. It is a cool hike. Like people said, the last half of the hike up (maybe slightly more) is just bouldering on the dry wash river going up big rocks. It is challenging if you don’t have good shoes or balance. I saw many with walking sticks, but you don’t need them unless you are older. The actual end was really cool as you can see by the pictures. Just a unique rock formation all along the sides. But it dead ends shortly after the main hallway as any further is closed during spring/summer months (picture attached). One word of caution. The trail, especially when you’re out on the dry riverbed, is sometimes hard to follow. I had to stop several times to make sure I was going the right way. There are a few signs but not as many as you would think given that the trail is as rough as it is. For example, on the way back I was walking the trail parallel to the riverbed and somehow made it right back onto the riverbed and was walking before I realized I think I made a wrong turn. I doubled back and found the actual trail.. otherwise I probably would have kept going on the riverbed because I thought that was right. So just be aware of your surroundings and that you are on the actual trail and don’t get sidetracked by a fake trail off to the side.

I hiked Devil's Hall and followed a dry creek bed into a limestone canyon that narrowed steadily until the walls were close enough to touch on both sides. The Hiker's Staircase near the end is a natural rock formation that requires careful foot placement but rewards the effort with a hidden canyon chamber that most park visitors never reach. I had the entire trail to myself from start to finish, which felt almost implausible for a national park on a clear weekend morning. Guadalupe Mountains consistently delivers solitude that its scenery does not deserve to keep quiet.

I enjoyed the hike but you should be in pretty good shape. We were there on a day in the upper 80s. The hike out and back is 4 miles total to get in the slot canyon at the end. It is almost exactly 1 mile of trail to the river bed. Then the second mile up is all boulders. 2 of us on our hike really like the climbing but 1 was struggling. Just be aware that it is a full mile out and again back on the boulders. There is broken shade from the trees and walls throughout the hike, we also had a nice breeze. We were there in mid may and there were MANY black flies in the river bed portion. I killed over a dozen from my arms alone on the 1 mile back through the river bed. They were really only in the river bed where there is moisture around. Take plenty of water, we drank about 2 gallons.