Days 15 and 16: Pine Springs, TX → Las Cruses, NM
We hit the road early, as it was Friday and we were headed to a first-come, first-served campground that fills up. We drove west through El Paso, TX, and then headed north to Las Cruses, NM.
There’s a bit of a mountain pass there, and when I had to stop short, I realized I hadn’t secured the cassette toilet properly. It slid completely out, but thankfully didn’t spill. Lesson learned.…
From Las Cruses, we headed over another mountain pass and drove into the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument towards Aguirre Spring Campground, nestled up in the hills. Operated by the Bureau of Land Management and established only in 2014, this monument had no visitor center and is mostly unknown. It was one of the mostly lovely surprises of the trip. The campground has some tight sites, but also some great ones with amazing views. We grabbed a great spot, thanks to some kind folks, and had tons of room, with a covered picnic table, and a great campfire area hidden down below. And our neighbors were all great.
This was supposed to be a quick stop on the way to White Sands National Park, but I decided to say a bit longer so we could relax.
We had a lovely casual afternoon and evening that first day, just chilling out and enjoying the views and the campfire. The second day was reasonably sunny and in the high 50s, so we headed up the 4.6-mile-loop Pine Tree Trail. It was such a great hike, and few enough people that I could let Zeke off-leash a bit.
As we headed up the mountain, the weather turned and temperatures dropped. Then it started snowing. Thankfully, I had thrown my down jacket in my backpack, just in case Zeke or I got injured and had to wait for help. There were families up there with little kids in t-shirts.
As we headed back down and just hiked out of the snow, Zeke saw this rock and declared it nap time. It was so cute, and many people passed us as he took his afternoon siesta.
Later that afternoon, I headed back to town for supplies and accidentally ended up in the adorable historic village of Mesilla, where we had dinner at a winery on their patio. Sorry, no photos. This whole area would be worth a much longer stay.
On the last day, we relaxed, cleaned out the van again, and stayed well into the afternoon so we could hit White Sands for sunset and a full moon. More on that tomorrow.