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 whirred in front of our legs. As we reached into the clefts of the hills it cooled down a lot and became far more pleasant.
We rounded a corner and as the path took us into the mountains we came across some old wooden buildings. These were the remains of a livery, and chicken coop. They were for the use of Eugene Patten's Mountain Camp which had been built further up the rise, right against the mountain. Patten had established the camp in the late 19th century. Guests would get as far as the livery by stage coach and here the coaches and wagons would have been stored while the holiday makers made their way up to the camp.
The peaks loomed over our heads. This part of the Organ Mountains is composed of igneous granite which has been deeply furrowed. The spring descending the rocky wall had been diverted by Patten into a reservoir which he had hewn into the rock below.
Very little remains of the mountain camp. Van Patten had had a long running dispute with his neighbour Nathan Boyd who had refused to pay his rent to Patten. The lawyers bankrupted Patten who was eventually forced to sell the resort to Boyd for a trifling $1.
We stopped at a picnic bench by the spring and had a very late lunch while being entertained by a tarantula who was scurrying around. He must have been about 6 inches in diameter but very non threatening. He was too busy looking for a girl.
Boyd had rented the land from Patten to build and run a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers. There is little of this left and Boyd did not gain anything financially from his enterprise, being forced eventually to sell it off. Here are a couple of pictures of the former Sanitorium.
It had clouded over while we were under the mountain but the sun came out again as we walked back shining some rather lovely light on the outlying rocks.
It had clouded over while we were under the mountain but the sun came out again as we walked back shining some rather lovely light on the outlying rocks.
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