The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 feet (2,667 m), and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the route later followed by the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line.

The restored Frijole Ranch contains a small museum of local history and is the trailhead for Smith Spring.

The McKittrick Canyon trail leads to a stone cabin built in the early 1930s as the vacation home of Wallace Pratt, a petroleum geologist who donated the land.

[4] As stated in the foundation document:[5] Guadalupe Mountains national park preserves, protects, and interprets an area of outstanding geological values, scenery, wilderness, and other natural resources in the northern Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas.The Guadalupe Mountains give their name to the Guadalupian series in the Permian period.

Hunter-gatherers followed large game and collected edible vegetation, as evidenced by the discovery of projectile points, baskets, pottery and rock art.

The Spanish introduced horses; nomadic indigenous tribes like the Apaches soon found them an asset for hunting and migrating.

The 9th Cavalry Regiment was ordered to the area to stop Indian raids on settlements and the mail stage route.

[9] In 1921, Wallace Pratt, a geologist for Humble Oil and Refining Company, was impressed by the beauty of McKittrick Canyon and bought the land to build two houses there.

Wallace Pratt donated about 6,000 acres (9.4 sq mi; 24.3 km2) of McKittrick Canyon which became part of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which was dedicated and formally opened to the public in September 1972.

The northwestern extension, bounded by a dramatic escarpment known as "The Rim", extends much further into New Mexico, approaching close to the Sacramento Mountains.

Much of the range is built from the ancient Capitán Reef, formed at the margins of a shallow sea during the Permian Period.

The history of the range includes occupation by ancient Pueblo and Mogollon peoples, and by the Apache and various outlaws in the 19th century.

[21] Mammals that inhabit this national park include elk, javelina, gray fox, American black bear, coyote, bobcat, striped and hog-nosed skunk, badger, sixteen species of bat, mule deer, and mountain lion.

[22] Birds of this park include great horned owl, chickadee, sparrow, woodpecker, turkey vulture, greater roadrunner, hummingbird, peregrine falcon, golden eagle, wren, and grosbeak.