Devil's Hall: Nature's Raw Splendor

I'll start by saying that I love Guadalupe Mountains National Park, but it is seriously underfunded and understaffed. It could be so much better than it is. The Devil's Hall trail has a lot of wonderful things to see, especially towards the end, but the trail is not in good shape compared to most national park trails. The trail is rocky, very narrow, and not well marked. The second half of the trail is a lot of 'bouldering' (see the attached photos) in a dried up 'wash', and several other people I passed on the trail had underestimated the difficulty of traversing this area. Not having markers on the trail makes it easy to get off trail in several areas (I am a fairly experienced hiker, and I ended up off trail twice). Ultimately, this is a rewarding trail, but you need to be prepared.

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.

Trail was not well marked, climbing boulders at some points on the dry river bed

Hiked today - February 2025 on a Saturday. There were friendly rangers on the trailhead in Pine springs visitor center. The first one mile is gradual incline loose rock and dirt. Then, the trail leads you down to the wash for scrambling in the boulders. This was the most strenuous part for me and not knee friendly at all. So definitely wear good hike shoes and the boulders were mostly smooth , some has rock edges. There will be a staircase that could easily mislead you that it’s the Devil’s Hall , climbing the staircase can be daunting and not recommended for with fear of heights, there’s a mini pool/well on top of it - stagnant water. Walk another 0.2 Miles in the wash and you will reach the Hall. We were the second hikers around 830 am and at around 1130 when we were heading down, it was getting crowded so def the earlier the better as this is a popular hike next to Guadalupe Mt

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.