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ploddinTod: Any type of scenery is fine. I don't plan on picking up any technical skills, so I need to avoid technical climbing, mountaineering, and probably deep snow, now that I think of it.

01ACRViper: I've had my eye on the Guadalupe Mountains for a while. I just read a post from a guy who climbed El Capitan, Bartlett Peak, Bush Mountain, Shumard Peak, and Guadalupe Peak -- in the same day! (He's a Rocky Mountain guy who evidently took a look at our Texas mountains and decided that if he shoved a bunch together he could make one good one.) Obviously that guy is in a league beyond me, but something about that turned me off. Burning through a bunch of fairly accessible places in record time would be challenging, but too much like running a track.

What would be coolest would be to go someplace where I couldn't go at all without a huge effort. Someplace where the terrain and distance makes the destination a reward that can't be earned any other way. I haven't found that hike yet. I bet some of the remote places in Big Bend qualify. I plan on doing the Cross Canyon trail (roughly from the Talley campsite to the Solis campsite), but that doesn't look tougher than the Outer Mountain Loop. I know nothing about the Mesa de Anguila.

I haven't seen anything about the parts of the Guadalupe Mountains away from the major trails. What's out there?