Thompson 1067 Carlsbad Caverns Trip. Guadalupe Mountains Trip up Big Canyon with J. Stokley Sigon & G.M. Knight. April 24, 1931. We drove to Graves Ranch, 50 miles from Carlsbad, and from there about 6 miles up into the mouth of Big Canyon to Graves Davis ranch. From here we hiked about 4 or 5 miles up the canyon to a stream of clear water and about 1 mile beyond where the water was first encountered. The canyon is wild & picturesque, beginning with high slopes & pine cliffs, narrowing to a deep narrow chasm. At first we went through desert vegetation, yuccas, sotols, mescale, palopana. Farther up the canyon, hardwoods such as maples, madrone, others were interspersed with a few yellow pines & large gumjipers. Sigon said that the lower portion of the canyon would be excellent for Peccaries, which are now extinct in the region but which used to inhabit it. A few peccaries are in the sandy