For the first time in literally forever, I brought my big camera with me on a hike! The weather finally cleared up in New Mexico so we drove right out of town up to the Dripping Springs Natural Area. There are multiple hiking trails into the Organ mountains that start here, but we decided to do a longer hike that went to most of the main points of interest in the area. We didn’t drive up here during the snow (even though it was beautiful!) but there was still a little bit on the ground. A rarity for this desert area for sure! The first point of interest was the old hotel for fancy rich college kids back in the day at the Van Patten Mountain Camp.
From there we followed the trail just a little further to the waterfall at Dripping Springs.
Our next stop was a different set of historical buildings.
From this area we hiked away from the ruins and up and over a little rise towards the area where the cave is located. We could have chosen to do a small out and back section to see mining ruins but I was already super tired of hiking so we passed this time!
The cave “la cueva” was inhabited by the native population around 5000 bc as a natural place to stay out of the sun and keep cool. There were places where food was ground, fires were lit, and pictures were painted on the rocks.
That was about as much hiking as I really find enjoyable but we finally made our way back to the truck, got some dinner, and relaxed for a bit before heading back up to Dripping Springs to try to catch the sunset! Yesterday the sunset was spectacularly colorful, unfortunately tonight it was pretty lackluster. Still a nice area though!
