Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument

Since we had gotten an early start, we had quite a bit of day ahead of us before we needed to head out to Carlsbad. So, since we had seen the dunes and we didn’t anticipate that animal activity would pick up as the day got sunnier, we decided to visit a new National Monument that neither of us had been to.

Interesting rocks

Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument (that’s a mouthful) is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System. National Monuments can be managed by the NPS or BLM and, often, you don’t hear as much about the BLM sites. But, many are spectacular.

And, “spectacular” is the word used on the reviews we read online about Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument. So, why not go?

Rugged butte

The 496,330-acre monument was designated by President Obama in 2014. 

It protects a variety of geological, paleontological and archaeological resources in the Chihuahua Desert. 

Half of the monument is designated wilderness and closed to development or cars. It has three big units near Las Cruces. 

The protected area includes five mountain ranges – Robledo, Sierra de las Uvas, Doña Ana, Organ and Potrillo. 

The Monument protects archaeological/cultural sites, including WWII bomber target practice sites, Apollo Mission astronaut training areas and 22 miles of the Butterfield Stagecoach Trail. 

There are 243 known archeological sites, including some of the earliest Native American settlements and petroglyphs made by three different tribes.

Before the Gadsden Purchase, Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks included the border with Mexico. More recently the area was used by both Billy the Kid and Geronimo.

A wide view; Photo: Caty Stevens

Of course, we didn’t visit any of those sites. We did, however, take a lovely short hike to Dripping Springs, which was the site of an early tourist resort. 

An old tourist spot; Photo: Caty Stevens

Colonel Eugene Van Patten built Van Patten's Mountain Camp resort near the spring in the 1870s. Thirty years later, Dr. Nathan Boyd established a tuberculosis sanatorium nearby. There was no cure for tuberculosis at the time, but patients did benefit from clean air, good food, clean water, tranquility and sunshine, all of which were abundant at the resort.

Old buildings; Photo: Caty Stevens

Van Patten was the nephew of John Butterfield, founder of the Butterfield Stagecoach Overland Mail Company, which ran through the area. Van Patten worked for his his uncle as a laborer, driver, conductor, station keeper and Indian fighter. He was then a Pony Express rider and a bugler for the Confederate Army of New Mexico. After being wounded in battle, he took charge of a Confederate hospital.

A building up against the cliff

Van Patten, whose wife was Native American and Spanish, led opposition to efforts to evict Native Americans from their land. He created a unit of the New Mexico National Guard and organized a New Mexico branch of Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" for the Spanish-American War. He also served as the sheriff and was active in bringing the railroad to Las Cruces. He was a co-founder of New Mexico State University.

The Dripping Springs resort was a two-story 14-room hotel with dining and recreational facilities. Made of native rock from the canyon, it was held together with mud-mixing plaster. 

The grounds were landscaped and featured a gazebo bandstand. Interior ceilings were covered with tightly stretched muslin and patterned wallpaper decorated many of the rooms. 

There was a livery, where guests could stable horses and mules and park coaches and wagons. He drew staff from the Tortugas Indians.

More ruins; Photo: Caty Stevens

Resort guests guests included lawman Pat Garrett, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and, possibly, Billy the Kid. 

Old barbed wire

After Van Patten rented land to Boyd for his sanatorium, he and Van Patten became entangled in a legal dispute over land and water. 

By 1916, Van Patten, bankrupted by legal costs, turned Dripping Springs over to Boyd, selling it to him for $1.00. 

Boyd, educated in San Francisco, moved to Dripping Springs after his scheme to build a dam and sell irrigation water to farmers below the dam at outrageous prices collapsed. He chose the area because his wife had tuberculosis. 

He operated the sanatorium until 1922. Later the Dripping Springs land was used for livestock.

The springs, which seep out of the rock, form a very small dripping waterfall. Based on evidence as we hiked, it appears that the stream coming from the springs can also an also become a torrent. There were a lot of downed trees and brush in the streambed.

The stream

The three-mile round-trip hike is easy, across scrubby desert and then down into the canyon by the spring.

A nice morning; Photo: Caty Stevens

The area with the ruins of the resort and the sanatorium are roped off to prevent you from walking through the buildings. Some are badly broken down and some are remarkably intact. Some, even still have screen in the doors and windows.

Screen door

The trail is referred to as a "loop," but it's all pretty much the same route out and back with just a little loop at the end.

There isn't a lot of shade along the way, so in the summer time, it might not be as pleasant as the balmy, breezy day we hiked.

We saw a few critters along the route …

Chipping Sparrow

Mule Deer

Black-throated Sparrow

Hermit Thrush hiding beneath the springs

More Say’s Phoebes

And, some really pretty cactus flowers

While the hike had been described as “spectacular,” I would have to say it was only pretty. But, then, I live in Colorado and I have traveled to many truly spectacular places, so I am very jaded.

A nice walk; Photo by Caty Stevens

Now, however, it was time to hit the road. It’s a long and very isolated drive to Whites City. We opted to swing through El Paso (sorry, NOT a pretty city) and up past Guadalupe Mountains. This area is in Texas, making this a two-state adventure.

Guadalupe Peak

If you drive anywhere near Guadalupe, remember that there are NO services for miles. Fill up your gas tank. I didn’t and had a few moments of panic until I realized that my “range” finder on my car was overreacting to hills. We made it with two gallons to spare. I should have filled up in El Paso. 

The weird thing is that the “No Services” warning doesn’t show up until you are a good 20 or more miles past the last services. 

It seems to me that the sign should be by the last gas station. Had we run too low, we could have taken a 28-mile detour near on the route, but it was fine.

We arrived fairly late and tired, making a mental note that the southwest approach to Guadalupe Mountains might be the most spectacular (and the word is appropriate here) and it would be good for sunset photos the next night.

Trip date: April 6-10, 2017