Introduction
This is a great, near-to-Las-Cruces hike that has a slightly overstated reputation for difficulty. The gain is only 3200 feet and the altitude come in fairly steady increments. The tread takes you from the Dripping Springs Natural Area, ascends Fillmore Canyon, brings you through a pretty upland forest and leaves you on a summit with fantastic views all around. There are no technical moves that have any exposure. It is woefully under-celebrated. I met no other hikers on a beautiful Sunday in mid May.
Driving Directions
- Take Exit 1 on I25. At the end of the ramp, turn east (towards Mt A and the Organ Mountains) on University Avenue.
- Stay on University as it changes it’s name to Dripping Springs Road, turns to dirt at 4.7 miles and reacquires a paved surface at 8.0 miles (just past the junction with Baylor Canyon Drive).
- After 10.0 miles, park in the upper parking lot at Dripping Springs Natural Area.
Note: the upper parking lot is where I parked, but that is most likely a mistake. There is a paved loop below the the upper parking lot. Look for it on the north side of the Dripping Springs Road (to your left as you drive in). This loop seems to have parking spaces. If so, then parking on that lower loop would let you shave off a long excursion into the terrain above the Visitor’s Center. My guess is that you would save about a mile on the round trip that way.
Trailhead
Camry in front of the Visitor’s Center at the Dripping Springs Natural Area
The Visitor’s Center at the upper parking lot has many amenities including flush toilets and running water. The Visitor’s Center is manned and offers basic maps to casual users. The Dripping Springs Natural Area is set up as day-use only. Currently, the park opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes it’s gates at 7:00 p.m., but that changes with the seasons. See the schedule here. Slow movers (like myself) will want to be at the gates when they open.
Data
- Starting elevation: 5640 feet
- Ending elevation: 8860 feet
- Net Gain: 3220 feet
- Distance: 5.4 miles, one way
- Maps: USGS Organ Peak
Hike
Sign at branch trail into Fillmore Canyon
On this excursion I took the trail leading uphill from the upper parking lot and followed it southeast in the direction of Ice Canyon. About a quarter of a mile above the parking lot a major trail comes in from the left. Take that trail north towards tailings from what seems to be an old mine on the north wall of the canyon. Continue following the trail as it turns back to the northwest to arrive on the northern side of the rocky ridge behind the Visitors Center. There, at a little over one mile from the trailhead, come to a junction signed for Fillmore Canyon. Head up Fillmore.
The trail stays on the south side of the canyon initially, rising steeply in places (as it encounters ribs coming down from the canyon rim) and descending a little from time to time. After about 2.2 miles it crosses the canyon bed and begins weaving below the arroyos leading up to Organ Needle, which towers massively above and to the north. At about 3.5 miles the path passes close to a sheer cliff on the southern canyon wall and begins making a slow left-hand turn until the trail is facing directly north.
View from inside The Narrows to the rim of Fillmore Canyon
At this point the trail enters a brief defile known as The Narrows. It is a 10 to 20 foot wide cut through gray sedimentary rock formed in crumbling layers . Although barely 100 feet in length, The Narrows is a shady place that supports the growth of broad leaf trees (maples?), a hint of the pleasant greenery to come. As you come out of the canyon, watch for the Organ Needle summit that peers down on you from its immense height.
Bee tree (the insects were densest near the lowest limb jutting leftward from the trunk).
Above The Narrows the canyon makes an abrupt right hand turn to go east for a few hundred feet followed by a slower ascending left hand bend as it begins heading northeast in forested terrain. Watch for the bee tree to the right of the trail. I did not notice it in the morning, but the buzzing was daunting on return in the afternoon. Still in the forest, you will soon encounter a few sheets of badly abused aluminum and the elevator assembly from the tail of an aircraft. They are directly on the trail. One hopes that the pilot was able to bail out safely.
Canyon-bottom ledge that marks departure point for ascending a rib to the ridge. Note hiking pole on left for scale.
In less than a quarter mile from the elevator (about 4.5 miles from the trailhead) encounter a broad solid ledge made of whitish rock, three or four feet high, that spans the bottom of the canyon. Look up and to your right for cairns, indicating that this is where you leave the canyon. There is a boot trail that climbs steeply to gain the top of a long rib. The trail follows this rib-top to gain the ridge that leads to Organ Peak. Boots have beaten a multitude of treads on this rib. All lead to the summit.
Edit: finding the departure point above the ledge can be a little tricky. Paul H provides a very useful update (from 2017) in the comments below. (Thanks Paul!)
View above the headwaters of Ruckers Canyon to the Tularosa Basin
The rib broadens and steepens as it reaches the summit ridge, but eventually gentles to a wide col. To your left is an astronomical observatory that appears abandoned. Before you is Rucker’s Canyon leading down to the Tularosa Basin. On your right is the tread that leads to the summit. The trail now becomes a bit sketchy. However, some terrifically civil minded individuals have been up there with knives and stem cutters to open a way. My thanks to those folks! Stay close to the top of the ridge and look for shrub stumps.
Organ Needle and north Mesilla Valley from near summit
The summit pulls into view at 5.5 miles. There is a cairn protecting a grey plastic box with the summit register inside. (You may have to shift aside some of the top rocks on the cairn). Summit views extend to the Mesilla Valley to the west, Soledad Canyon to the south, the cloud-dappled Tularosa Basin on the east, and the imposing Organ Needle to the north. Very much worth the visit!
You can return to the col below the observatory and take the rib down from there, just as on the ascent. However, there seems to be several trails in the park-like terrain below the summit ridge. It might be fun to tray an alternative route back to the forested part of the trail.
Recommendations
I had a great day, but the notes inside the summit register suggest that Organ Peak can be a cold and windy place. You probably want to keep some warm gear in your pack. There was no water at any point along the trail, despite the fact that there had been heavy rainfall in Las Cruces two days previously. The gully bottoms where filled with loose and dusty sands, as if none of that water reached this portion of the mountains. Bring plenty! I had three liters, which was enough for a mild May day.
This is a great distance for a get-in-shape workout, the green forest is a welcome change in pace from most Organ Mountains hiking, and the views are spectacular. It will be a routine part of my calendar! The only three things I would change is (1) my choice of parking spots and (2) remembering, next time, to bring along an actual camera rather than relying on my cell phone and (3) it looks like roaming through the park-like terrain near the summit ridge would be fun.
New Mexico Meanders 
Tried this today but gave up around 8200ft below the observatory peak approaching from what I believe was Rock Spring canyon, as it was very steep and we were tired. Any more tips on finding the “steep trail up to the rib top after the plane elevator wreck”? I am guessing that after the elevator wreck, we should have continued straight past the arroyo on the right to find the “Departure Ledge.”
Howdy Paul,
I have to hedge a little here! First, it has been a bit more than four years since I was up there so my thinking about these matters does not have an especially sharp focus. Second, 2013 was a terrible drought year and that may have simplified my task of picking out boot trails. The current moisture levels are much higher and I suspect that the vegetation is making the trails harder to find.
You do want to stay in the bottom of the main canyon until you positively identify the “departure ledge”. As I recall, there were three or four arroyos (or “cuts”) coming into the canyon from your right (on ascent) and I did not enter any of these. Instead, think of that ledge as part of a rib of hard rock coming down from the peak. The water in the canyon has cut through this rib, leaving the “departure ledge” in the bottom of the canyon and fairly steep walls on either side. To navigate, find the ledge then immediately find a boot path that ascends the steep right-hand wall and puts you onto the top of that rib. The boot path used to be marked with a small cairn up on the wall, a few feet above the ledge, although the cairn could well be gone now. There was also a much larger cairn at the point where the path reached the top of the canyon wall. The path up the wall was purely informal – brushy, steep and covered with loose gravel. It is neither the most obvious nor the most attractive of treads, but at least it is pretty short.
There are two things that might help. First, you can enlarge most photos in the blog by clicking them (this works for the departure ledge photo). On a computer, especially, you can get a much better view of the departure ledge and a clear view of the hiking pole that is there for scale. Second, if you go past the ledge then the canyon makes a nearly 90-degree turn to your right (you’ll be ascending NE to get to the departure ledge and just past the ledge the canyon bottom turns SE). As I recall, I initially went past the ledge and was alerted to the problem by that sharp turn in the bed.
I hope that helps. Let me know if I can clarify anything further. If you get back up there then please leave a comment so the other readers will know what kind of tread you found.
Marty
Many thanks for your helpful comments!
About 150 paces from the plane elevator, the trail crosses an arroyo that comes down from the right. This is the arroyo we took last time, that appears on alltrails tracks, and that resulted in us turning around due to fatigue and very steep terrain not far below the observatory shack, looking down across the valley at what appeared to be a rock house (Rock House Spring?). It would have probably been feasible to negotiate a way up to the ridge from there, but on my second attempt I found the trail and it was easier going.
After crossing “Rock House Spring” arroyo, the trail continues straight only a few feet, after which I just followed the “main canyon” arroyo bottom to the Ledge.
Saw on summitpost that “This slab is currently underneath of a mostly dead Alligator Juniper, killed by the fire which was a few years ago,” but this is misleading. There is an alligator juniper quite a few feet back up the canyon bottom from the Departure Ledge, but it does not obscure the Ledge. It has a fair amount of green branches as well as dead ones. Just forget the juniper and look for a ledge that spans the canyon bottom and that has a spacious white top you will walk on once stepping up onto the ledge.
There is a tread that goes up the right-hand slope from on top of the ledge. The entrance is not obvious due to plants. I did not see it going up, but the plants and terrain were forgiving enough, though the latter was steep, to just walk right up the hill toward the small juniper at top left (the one that appears against the sky from the Ledge).
Once past the short, steep section, the tread is better defined. I may have only followed it about 60% of the time between there and the summit, though my percentage was better on the way down. My strategy on the somewhat narrow rib top, whenever I lost the trail, was to try to stay close to the left (north) edge. Too steep? Move right. Too brushy? Move back left. Thus zigzagging I would usually find the trail again before too long. It seems to pass near most of the big trees on the left (north) edge of the rib top.
Between the observatory col and the summit, I used a similar strategy to look for the trail when lost: tried to stay on the less brushy, left (east) side of the ridge. Tried avoiding some of the intermediate summits but sometimes the best path seemed to be right over and down their rocky tops.
5 hrs up, 5 hrs down = 10 hrs total. Was glad of a windbreaker once out of canyon bottom. Also helps when plowing through the many thickets both off and on trails! Drank not quite 1.5 liters, but it was a cool day.
Thanks for this update! I will put a comment into the main text so people will see your recommendations.