March 12, 2024

Dripping Springs Natural Area

15000 Dripping Springs Rd, Las Cruces, NM 88011

“There are numerous hiking paths and trails in and around Las Cruces. Among the most popular reside in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument (OMDP), a monument that will be celebrating it's 5th anniversary this year! The trail we will be highlighting in this post is the Dripping Springs Trail: a 3-mileish roundtrip hike that takes you up into historically-preserved structures and the famed dripping springs developed in 1892 to act as a reservoir for the Dripping Springs Motel. The pond is long-gone, but it only takes a little bit of imagination to envision what existed in this spot more than a century into our past...” - visitlascruces.com

Took advantage of a nice late winter afternoon to hike the Dripping Springs Trail. The nice rock trail takes you up to what used to be a tourist destination in the 1800s. Guests were delivered to the resort via stagecoach. On the hike one passes through the Livery where the horses from the stagecoaches and supply wagons were watered. After walking past the Dripping Springs, which was just a trickle on the day I visited, you find the remains of the Van Patten Mountain Camp/Dripping Springs Resort. One can also visit the Boyd Sanatorium, where Dr. Nathan Boyd around 1910 built a structure to act as housing for tuberculosis patients. The doctor’s cottage and the dining hall still remain.

It was a great hike, not terribly difficult. I would take it again.