At eight tenths of a mile up the trail you'll intersect with the horse or stock trail. There are good views of the campground and Guadalupe Pass from this location. From here, the steep switchbacks continue for a little over ½ mile.

Near the top of the switchbacks, one and a half miles up the trail, you'll pass a cliff with steep drop offs just next to the trail. There is a sign here warning horseback riders to dismount and walk their horses across this area. From just beyond the cliff we get a great view of Shumard Peak. The peak was named for geologist G. G. Shumard, who visited the Guadalupes in 1855 and described the massive white limestone of the Guadalupe Mountains as the Capitan Formation of Permian age.