HAPPY TRAILS
Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks National Monument offers visitors unique experiences
Even for those who are immersed in its environment on a daily basis, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is full of pleasant surprises.
“I still get sort of these ‘Ah-ha’ moments when I’m out there visiting. There’s still places that I haven’t seen. Or places that I’ve been to a million times that I see something different each time,” said Patrick Nolan, executive director for the monument. “Each experience is really unique, and it’s just a really unique, cool landscape that you don’t find anywhere else. It’s a real jewel of New Mexico.”
The monument, which also includes the Potrillo Mountains and Doña Ana Mountains, will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next May. According to its website, the monument was established to protect “significant prehistoric, historic, geologic, and biologic resources of scientific interest.”
“It really took a large sort of community grassroots effort to protect it,” Nolan said. “It was a wilderness campaign at first, and it sort of shifted prevailing political winds before settling on the monument designation, which (President Barack) Obama signed in 2014.”
Today, visitors of the monument can participate in myriad outdoor activities, while a varied landscape offers plenty of scenery and a diverse population of wildlife including birds, mule deer, javelina, coyote and even oryx. In some cases, it’s best to proceed with caution.
“I would tread lightly around oryx,” Nolan said. “They’re known to be a little aggressive.”
Options abound for hiking enthusiasts, with nearly 100 trails of varying
degrees of difficulty available. According to Nolan, the Dripping Springs Trail, located on the west side of the Organ Mountains, is the monument’s most visited with a flat, wide-open hike that is ideal for beginners. More advanced hikers might enjoy High Tree Loop, which features waterfalls, streams and a higher elevation, or Sierra Vista, a relatively flat 27-mile trek ideal for hikers and cyclists alike. In short, there’s probably something for everyone — even those who prefer to blaze their own trail.
“There’s other places that aren’t like official trails that can present some more challenging trails for folks, too,” Nolan said.
Perhaps the most difficult hike in the area is known as the Needles, a 5.8-mile hike that ranks as one of the toughest in the state. It’s advised to avoid this route in the summer, Nolan says.
“It’s very steep toward the second half of it,” he said. “There’s some scrambling. Folks don’t necessarily anticipate that. When you’re looking at it, it looks sort of doable. But it is an incredibly challenging hike.”
Meanwhile, mountain biking has become increasingly popular at the monument in recent years. One of most well-known trails is the Monumental Loop, which spans a total of 230 miles and connects all four parts of the monument. How one decides to approach it is a matter of preference.
“It’s a combination of trails, county roads and unofficial trails that folks can ride,” Nolan said. “You don’t have to do the whole 200-plus miles. You can do it in chunks. You can just do one part of it. But I think it’s really cool too, both to get visitors here, but it’s also a cool tool to get folks to other parts of the monument.
“A lot of people just tend to go to the Organs because it’s the closest and most accessible. But there’s a ton of other places to go and see. Monumental Loop helps to get there.”
The Monumental Loop is also home to the DangerBird, a ride that features 150 cyclists and attracts people from outside the Land of Enchantment to participate. This will be the second year that the race has been officially recognized by the Bureau of Land Management, though according to Nolan it existed prior to that as a community-based event. Registration is currently open for the Oct. 21 ride.
While summer tends to attract its fair share of visitors to the monument, the more moderate fall and spring seasons tend to be the busiest. Those are also the times that Nolan highly recommends making a visit to the monument.
“The best time to come here is spring or fall,” he said. “Spring is when you’ve got some blooming cactus. Fall is after monsoon season, and the mountains really green up, and I think are at their peak beauty-wise. The weather is great to get out there hiking.”