Hiking in the Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument NM…

We left Bowie Arizona heading further east on Interstate 10 for about 168 miles and pulled into another Passport America Park in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Coachlight Inn RV park is tucked in behind the Coachlight Inn Motel and is a great spot to stop for a few days to explore the area and consume some delicious,hot New Mexico chili…

Our first day in Las Cruces we checked out New Mexico State University and although the campus isn’t real beautiful or filled with history like many campuses we have visited it is nevertheless a quaint and interesting place for a good urban hike. We walked all around the campus and since it was a Sunday it was very quiet.

Afterward we stopped in at the Bosque Brewing Company  to sample their craft beer… mighty good I might add. After a cold frosty beverage we drove over to Andele’s which may have had the very best New Mexcian food we have had to date (close call to Sadie’s in Albuquerque). Man was it good and  is a real road treat…

Outside the restaurant was Mickey Gilly’s bus as it appeared he was also having a red/green chili desire! To finish the night we tried another frosty beverage at the High Desert Brewing Company and in our opinion it was a bit sub-par in their offerings…

The next day we headed out to the Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument. We read about a nice hike there on the Dripping Springs Trail. This 2.7 mile, out and back trail, is rated as moderate but I would say on the easier side of moderate. The trail begins near the Visitors Center ($5 to park unless you have a National Parks Pass).

The trail appears to be on an old road bed that they have placed large aggregate on making hiking a bit laborious as your feet slip a bit on the rocks climbing up the hill. About 1.4 miles on we arrived at the old Boyd Sanitarium. There is a small loop hike that took us to all the ruins of the sanitarium. The small “dripping springs” is located just below the site and is quite interesting in itself. The vegetation was still in the grips of winter as not many signs of spring abounded.

The craftsmanship in building the retaining wall for the water retention “pond” below the springs is a work of art. Lots of labor was involved in the construction of it. Just below the spring is a trail to the the Van Patten Mountain Camp which still has remnants of buildings that were once part of the vibrant camp.

Walking back down the trail we were dumbfounded by the beauty of the spires of the rock formations. As we got closer one formation even looked to me like a frog sitting a sloped rock. Look at the lower left photo below, see the frog!? On the right, I put a frog on the rocks adjacent to what I call frog rock – see it now? Maybe it was just the fatigue from climbing up the slope to the spring but hey, that is what I saw… It was a great 3.25 hike if you are in the area and even though the area is still in the clutches of winter we had a great time on the trails…

To wrap up our stay we stopped in at the The Pecan Grill and Breweryand had a cold craft beer before heading home and polishing off our leftovers from Andele’s Restaurant… mmmmmmmm mmmmmm good….

NOTE: We are moving from El Paso over to Van Horn Texas for Wednesday night then on to Monahans Sandhills State Park for a few days.