El Capitan, Mountain peak in Culberson County, Texas, United States.

El Capitan is the southernmost peak of the Guadalupe escarpment in Culberson County, Texas, rising 8,085 feet (2,464 m) as part of an exposed Permian limestone reef. Its main face is a broad, flat-topped cliff of light tan and pinkish stone with vertical grooves and columns, above slopes of pale gray scree.

In 1849 Robert S. Neighbors led an expedition from El Paso east past the peak to find a wagon route to the Pecos; his report opened the "upper road" used by traders and emigrants. In 1858 the Butterfield Stagecoach ran this road and built the Pinery station at Pine Springs, 3 miles southeast of El Capitan.

The name El Capitan comes from Spanish for "the captain", referring to the peak's command over the surrounding landscape. The Mescalero Apache, pushed south by the Comanche in the 18th century, kept a seasonal home near Pine Springs, about 3 miles southeast, where springs, seeps and vegetation supported them into the 19th century. Mescal dumps, petroglyphs and artifacts there record centuries of occupation.

You can view this peak from U.S. Highway 62/180, which has several spots where you can pull over and observe the mountain. The clearest views come when weather conditions are good and temperatures are mild.

The peak is the southernmost summit of the Guadalupe escarpment, an exposed section of the Capitan Reef Barrier, a 350-mile reef built mainly by calcareous sponges, encrusting algae such as stromatolites, and lime-rich mud from the ocean. The Border Fault lifted El Capitan about 1,000 feet above the adjacent salt-flat graben, which is why the cliff face stands so sheer above the highway.