Aguirre Spring

 

Windy! That’s probably the most used descriptor for Aguirre Spring National Rec Area; that is, besides breathtaking, beautiful and inspiring. Aguirre Spring Campground is tucked under a section of the Organ Mountains just a few miles east of Las Cruces, NM. at the end of a narrow, paved 6-mile ascent.  The last mile and a half or so is a one way loop and really gets into twisting and turning. At the start of the loop, we unhitched the Volvo and Michael led us to the campground in the Pickle while I followed in the Gherkin. (The fact that I only had to use two gears commandeering those hairpins helped.) The area gets its windy designation because to the east lies the White Sands Missile Testing Range - fifty miles of stretched out empty flatness. The wind picks up as the day warms. We were glad we visited White Sands National Monument in the morning, because when we drove past it again in the afternoon on our way back to the campground from Alamagordo, the Monument area off to our right was a cloud of white sand. The campground host who lives at the base of the campground year round, told us that one day last fall the wind there was measured at 120 mph.

Wind or not, it was great to wake up for 3 mornings to those rugged mountains towering over us with the early morning sun casting an orange pink glow to their craggy faces.

What? No sticks?

White Sands is surreal in its uniqueness. The only other place I’ve seen such mounds of whiteness is in Michigan – only THAT was snow!!! 

Another day at Aguirre Spring we hiked the Pine Tree Trail, a 4 ½ mile loop with an elevation change of 1100 feet.  It’s a rocky, stair-stepping kind of trail and the higher we climbed, the more I couldn’t look down, but it was a beautiful morning – sunny and not overly warm – and our hike gave us fantastic views of the Missile Range and Alamagordo Air Force Base, as well as up-close looks at the Organ Mountain peaks.