Enchanting Las Cruces!

March 13 - 20, 2022

New Mexico is the “Land of Enchantment” and the Las Cruces area did not disappoint us!  Our first day in Las Cruces took us to the visitor center where we were given tons of leads to area attractions, local restaurants and nearby parks.  Conveniently located a few blocks from the visitor center is the Mesquite Street Historic District.  Equipped with a walking map from the visitor center, we spent a bit of time strolling the history-filled, original neighborhood of Las Cruces.  We walked past the home of Santa Rosa Rico who was a lone survivor of a wagon train massacre!  In addition to the many other homes (one of which Billy the Kid hid out in for a while), we found “The Long Adobe” that served as the town’s bordello.  Our last stop was at Klein Park.  This is the spot where in 1848, after the town had been plotted out (using a crude rawhide rope), people gathered under a cottonwood tree and drew lots from a hat to determine which lot they would get.  The original town was thirteen blocks long and six blocks wide.  Today, Las Cruces covers 77 square miles with a population of 111,000 people!

We drew the perfect lot to build our dream home!

Just outside of Las Cruces is Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park.  The east boundary of the park borders the Rio Grande and we were looking forward to seeing this infamous river!  Walking along the trails in the park, we were shocked to see a mostly dry river bed!  The water flow of the river is controlled by dams upstream and we learned the water is shut off for the winter months.  Historically, the water is turned on from mid-March to October.  This year, due to drought, the water will not run again until June.  This is only the third time in history this has happened.  

The park is special for a couple of additional reasons.  Bosque is a Spanish word referring to the plants and trees that grow along a river.  It is estimated that more than 95% of these native areas along the Rio Grande are gone.  It was pretty cool to be able to experience the rare opportunity to stroll along the natural ecosystem of the Rio Grande river banks, even if the river was dry!  This park is a huge birding area and, during our walk, we saw several birds.  The only one we were able to identify was a northern harrier.  Before leaving the park, the ranger told us the location where a leucistic red-tailed hawk has been hanging out.  Sure enough, there it was, sitting atop of a utility pole!  It was exciting to see this bird, as it is a rare sighting in this area!  

I am a little reluctant to admit that I tend to judge a town by whether they have a quilt shop.  Las Cruces passed this test with flying colors!  Be Sew Creative is a great little shop where I not only found a few more florals for my cacti sampler quilt, but also a replacement arm extender for my Bernina Activa 230!  I purchased this “experienced” machine from a woman in the Des Moines area before we began this road trip and this accessory was missing from the machine.  Although I’ve gotten by without it, I’m thrilled to have finally found one!

From Las Cruces, you have a beautiful view of the Organ Mountains.  A short 30 miles on Highway 70 gets you to Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks National Monument, where we hiked the Pine Tree Trail.  This is a 4.5-mile loop with an elevation gain of 1030 feet.  It was just the perfect trail for us!  Along the trail, we had amazing views of the Organ Mountains’ “needles”!  I’m not sure if I was disappointed or relieved not to run into rattlesnakes.  Actually, now that I think about it, probably a bit of each, but mostly relieved!  This trail was a combination of hiking in a forest and hiking in a desert.  Alongside each other, we found live oak trees, pine trees, prickly pears, cholla and yuccas.  At the higher elevations, we even found a little bit of snow!

After the hike, we treated our tired muscles to a soak in the hot tub before heading out for dinner.  The Mexican cuisine is so authentic and delicious in the area!   We certainly had a large number of wonderful-sounding places to choose from, but in the end, La Posta de Mesilla won out.  The tipping point was its history.  The structure began in 1885 as a stagecoach station along the Butterfield Overland Trail. This forerunner to the Pony Express ran from St. Louis to San Francisco.  This is the only remaining structure still in existence.  The adobe walls have seen a lot, including sheltering Billy the Kid (seems he hid out about everywhere!), Kit Carson and Pancho Villa!

If you drive 60 miles on Highway 70, you find White Sands National Park.  The park is surrounded by White Sands Missile Range, which apparently shuts down Highway 70 once or twice a week for an hour or two.  This information made us wonder how close we were to Trinity Site, which is where they tested the first atomic bomb in 1945.  It turns out we were 150 miles away; however, still on the White Sands Missile Range!  That’s a huge missile range!  In researching a bit, we learned visitors can tour the historic Trinity Site twice a year (on the first Saturday in April and October).  This would be a very interesting site to see, in our opinion.  Dick’s father was enlisted in the navy during WWII and always stated that, as devastating as the atomic bombs were, they saved his life along with countless other lives.  I can’t believe we missed the opportunity to visit this site by only two weeks.  Bummer!

White Sands National Park is a nice day visit.  It’s relatively small and has several short trails along with a three-mile and five-mile trail for visitors to enjoy.  The sand itself has very different texture from any other sand we’ve experienced.  Millions of years ago, the area was covered by the Permian Sea.  When the sea retreated, it left behind gypsum, which was carried up when the mountains rose.  Melting water from glaciers dissolved the gypsum and returned it back to the basin.  It was pretty incredible to walk on the sand dunes, picturing the evolution the white grains of sand had been through, from being in the sea, to the top of mountains and then back to what is now the valley!  

The fossilized footprints that have been found are incredible!  They have determined humans lived here 23,000 years ago.  They found footprints of a woman and a small child, walking for more than a mile.  At times, the child’s footprints disappeared, while the woman’s footprints widened.  They believe this is when the mother was carrying the child.  They also found human footprints left inside of footprints of a Harlan’s ground sloth.  They believe humans were hunting the sloth!  I can’t help find myself wondering what traces of my life I’m leaving behind that at some point in the distant future, scientists will be theorizing about what in the world I was up to.  I’m sure they are going to be really questioning why I spend so much time cutting up beautiful fabric into tiny pieces, only to scramble them all up and sew them back together again!

White Sands NP was such a strange environment!  Visually, we were convinced this was snow I was driving on!  Children were sledding down the slopes of these brilliantly white dunes and every instinct in me kept preparing for the truck to slip and slide off the road!  Just across the road, however, people were playing sand volleyball while others sat in the shade of beach umbrellas.  Such a weird phenomenon for this midwestern couple!   

Mesilla is somewhat of a suburb of Las Cruces.   As we were camping only a mile from this quant neighborhood, we took several trips to check it out.  Cute shops and restaurants fill the historic district!  One shop, now a gift shop, was once a courthouse.  In this courthouse, Billy the Kid was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang.  He avoided being hanged by escaping from jail, only to be shot in the chest a short while later at the age of 22.

The Basilica of San Albino is also in Mesilla, where we attended Stations of the Cross Friday evening.  The Basilica was originally established in 1850 while this land belonged to Mexico!  Today, it continues to be a very active parish.  Following stations, Father invited everyone to the parish hall for a soup and bread dinner.  It was amazing to be so warmly welcomed into the community.  We found ourselves back there Saturday afternoon for Mass, recognizing several of the parishioners we had met the day before. 

St. Patrick’s Day occurred during our stay here, and although we missed the green beer, we did take in a dinner of corned beef and cabbage!  Dick’s mother was half Irish, so I’m pretty sure she would have approved!  This day would have been my father’s 94th birthday.  Mom would occasionally celebrate his birthday with a green velvet cake!  That’s pretty creative!  While I didn’t make a green cake, we did pop open a Guinness and toasted to “living for as long as we want, and never wanting for as long as we live!” 

I’ve often wondered what inspired the image on the New Mexico flag.  Once we arrived in New Mexico, this question only grew, as the image is everywhere!  The zia is a Native American symbol and represents the rays of the sun.  Four rays point in each direction.  The rays pointing north symbolize the four directions, east symbolizes ourselves (our heart, mind, body and spirit), south symbolizes the stages of life (infancy, adolescence, adulthood, elderhood) and west symbolizes the four seasons.  Pretty cool!

Las Cruces has a delightful farmers market on Saturday mornings.  We found a delicious breakfast burrito (mine had tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and cheese) to enjoy.  I purchased a pair of earrings from Bobby who made them from old glass bottles he finds on the edge of town!  Live music, combined with the yummy smells, made this such a fun environment.  One of my favorite purchases was from an 11-year girl who makes lip balms and was there selling them with her 8-year-old brother.  She did such a remarkable job of describing her product!  Our future is in good hands!

We have five more days of discovering New Mexico left.  That will take us to the south east corner of the state.  We continue to seek warm temperatures, which eliminates northern New Mexico for this time around!

Next up:  Carlsbad!