NICE HIKE TO DRIPPING SPRINGS.

Wednesday, January 25 – Another cold night in Las Cruces, NM. Woke up to 28 degrees. Too cold for us! We killed some time before heading out on our hike today at Dripping Springs Natural Area. Again, we were able to use our America the Beautiful pass for free admission.

The trail is a gravel base that climbs about 600 feet in elevation over about 2 miles (one way).

That is Las Cruces way down there.

Lots of dry beds along the trail.

 

At the end of the trail is a small mountain waterfall. There are also the remains of the Dripping Springs Resort. It had 16 rooms, a large dining room, and a concert hall. It was very popular around the turn of the century. Today the resort is in ruins.

The retaining wall at the base of the waterfall provided water to the hotel.

Back in the early 1800’s, a hotel built here and was named Van Patten’s Mountain Camp. A stagecoach line from Las Cruces would carry guests along the narrow, rocky path up to the hotel. That must have been a bit scary to say the least.

Original hotel.

Today.

We then finished our hike by returning on the same trail but this time the two-mile trek was all down hill. Overall, the hike took about two hours. It was Paul’s first hike since he had his knee replacement He did pretty good. We did enjoy the hike. Thankfully the temperatures were moderate, although it was only 38 degrees when we started, There was little or no wind until we made the turn to head back down the trail, and then we noticed a cool (Marsha says cold!) breeze beginning to cool things off.

Our last stop was the old Town of Mesilla. The town is one of the oldest and most visited communities in southern New Mexico. It is easy to see why this small town was named one of the top ten small towns in the country to visit. There are over fifty unique stores, boutiques, galleries, restaurants, and taverns all within walking distance of one another.

Basilica of San Albino

Dating back to 1850, this next building once housed the Capitol of Arizona and New Mexico. Later it was the courthouse in which Billy The Kid was tried and sentenced to hang.

The Plaza.

We had visited a winery, a craft brewery, and a margarita bar previously while visiting downtown during their Sunday afternoon craft show.

St Clair Winery came highly recommended. Their wine is excellent. We enjoyed the wine tasting and ended up buying two bottles of wine for our annual summer wine tasting party.

That ends our visit to the second largest city in New Mexico, Las Cruces. Due to predicted cool days and very cold nights (lows around 22 degrees) at our next planned stop of Deming, NM, we have decided to postpone our visit there until another time. We need to get out of high desert country and head further west to lower altitudes. Next stop is Casa Grande, AZ.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back real soon. Have a great day!

NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY

Tuesday, January 24 cont. -- Our last visit on the chilly windy day was to take a driving tour of New Mexico State University and a stop at the Chile Pepper Institute. We always enjoy walking college campuses, but today it was just too cold. There are only a few roads that we were able to drive down to see some of the buildings. We always like to see if there is a theme to the college campuses we visit. We found one here. NMSU uses a Southwest theme for their buildings. Using an adobe style architectural look.

Administration building.

Also located on the NM State University campus on the second floor of the Gerald Thomas Hall, is the Chile Pepper Institute. The Institute is a research-based international nonprofit organization devoted to education, research and archiving information related to Capsicum, commonly called Chile peppers.

Located in a former classroom is the Institute and Chile Pepper Gift Shop. Chile peppers are the signature crop of New Mexico.

The Center has several educational displays, a plant display cart, many unique Chile pepper displays, several guides and the best books and posters on Chile peppers.

The student volunteer did an excellent job of explaining that during late summer (harvest time) there are more displays of the peppers and actual tasting opportunities.

A couple of Chile facts that we learned.
---One fresh green Chile pod has as much Vitamin C as six oranges.
---Hot Chile peppers burn calories by triggering a thermodynamic burn, which speeds up metabolism.
---Chile peppers are relatives of tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants; all belonging to the nightshade family.
---There are 26 categorized species of Chile pepper, five of which are domesticated.

We ended the day with RV friends Pam and John, along with Jodee and Bill. We enjoyed an unusual “dinner out” at Farley’s.

L-R, John, Jodee, Bill, Paul, Marsha, Pam

We made an error in our last post. Zuhl Museum is located in Las Cruces not El Paso. Thanks Pam for catching that for us.

We are now in Yuma, AZ. Several more posts to come until we are caught up.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY: ZUHL MUSEUM

Tuesday, January 24 cont. – After our great visit to the Las Cruces Railroad Museum, our next stop was pretty amazing! The Zuhl Museum on the campus of New Mexico State University.

The Zuhl Collection contains over 1,800 beautiful specimens of petrified wood, fossils and minerals. It is interesting to see petrified samples from different areas of the country and how they differ in color and mineral content. Most of these samples are polished to a very high degree of gloss and are absolutely beautiful.

One tiny corner of this awesome museum.

Each piece has a number so that we can easily identify it. We couldn’t get over how old these pieces are. This collection is considered the finest collection of petrified wood on display in the country.

This piece is from AZ dated back 251-199 million years ago.

This piece is from Nevada dated back 23-5.3 million years ago.

This piece is from AZ dated back 251-199 million years ago.

The collection also boasts many awe-inspiring fossils. Pieces from every time period from the stunning Banded Iron Formation (3 billion years old) to an entire nest of Oviraptor dinosaur eggs (65-70 million years old). Not to be left out are the breathtaking minerals in the collection.

Petrified Crab.

Trilobites were common invertebrate animals that lived in the Paleozoic seas. They were among the first animals to have legs and eyes.

One dinosaur vertebrae.

Clear Quartz found in Arkansas. Age: 180-200 million years old.

Amethyst.

What an awesome museum. Don’t miss this gem when visiting El Paso.

We are way behind in posting. We have been boondocking the last four days near Maricopa, AZ.  We are headed for Yuma on Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

LAS CRUCES RAILROAD MUSEUM

Tuesday, January 24 – We remain in Las Cruces, NM, at Coachlight RV. Another windy day here. We are going to start referring to this season of the year as Wind-ter! The weather again put a crimp on our sightseeing plans. We reverted to auto-touring rather than walking during our sightseeing.
(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Our first stop today was at the Las Cruces Railroad Museum.

It is housed in the historic 1910, Santa Fe Depot. There are dozens of historic photographs and 100's of exhibits.

The lobby with the original bench.

The ticket window with a very excited customer.

The Agent’s bay.

The Fred Harvey Newsstand.

Items associated with the railroad.

One of our most enjoyable displays was the model layouts. There is a huge RR layout of Las Cruces as it appeared in the early 1900's, and two other enjoyable RR layouts. These are “hands-on” layouts that visitors can control. Fun!

One of the interactive control panels.

Las Cruces in the early 1900’s.

There are 100’s of minute details included in the displays. We were able to control this dump truck. It was crazy.

Train coming through the mountain opening.

The train flying by.

What a great…did we mention…free museum. If you are visiting Las Cruces, don’t miss the Las Cruces Railroad Museum.

Just a reminder that we are a little behind in posting. We are currently in Casa Grande, AZ.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!