Framedlight

Before we went on the trip, Anne had bought a secondhand, very dogeared book about ghost towns in New Mexico. One of those mentioned in the book was Organ, a scattering of a few houses, some of which had fallen into decrepitude, along the main highway leading north east out of Las Cruces. The Organ Mountains lay close to the south of the settlement and the San Andrés Mountains some way off to the north. We pulled off the highway onto a dirt road and parked up on what we at first thought was waste ground. It turned out to be the graveyard, the first hint of which was a few plastic flowers on the ground. Thankfully we had parked in a little turn off and not on a grave, and we spent some time wandering around the dry and dusty plot which was strewn with cacti. The graveyard was aptly named the Slumbering Mountain Cemetery (patent date February 26 1885). I also took some pictures of the sad buildings which were crumbling alongside the road.

Anne had found a great house in Las Cruces for us to stay in while we were in southern New Mexico and we were ideally placed for most of the things we wanted to see. Las Cruces lies on the flood plain of the Rio Grande on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert and from the city you can see two chains of mountains, the Doña Ana to the north and the Organ Mountains to the east.  The Organ Mountains were established as a National Monument by President Obama in 2014 and rise sheer from the desert floor to a height of 9000 ft. The easiest walk starts at the Dripping Springs Visitor Centre and is a paved walk which leads to some interesting historical ruins and a pool and waterfall. It is only 4.8kms long. We had arrived late the previous evening and the day had started slowly, so the walk was begun rather late in the morning. It was fiercely hot which made the beginning of the route along the edge of the mountains rather slow. The path was crossed continuously by large grass hoppers which whirre