Located on the Western escarpment of the Guadalupe Mountains, Bartlett Peak is the fourth highest point in Texas with an elevation of 8,508 feet above sea level. No trail reaches the summit, and the peak is best seen from U.S. Highway 62/180 to the west of the park. The Salt Basin Dunes is an excellent location to view the peak from a distance. 

The peak is named for John Russell Bartlett. From 1850 to 1853 Bartlett served as the United States Boundary Commissioner responsible for surveying the boundary between the United States and Mexico. In 1854 he published A Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, in which he described the Guadalupes as "a dark, gloomy-looking range, with bold and forbidding sides, consisting of huge piles of rock, their debris heaped far above the surrounding hills."