Adventuring the Southwest: Organ Needle, Texas High Point, and Sedona

This trip was yet again inspired by combining a work conference and a state high point. We went back to Sedona, but given we’ve already done the Arizona and New Mexico high points, this time we were on to Texas. I’d had this idea back in 2019 when I attended a conference in Tuscon, but somehow got convinced it was too much driving and so we backpacked the Superstitions instead. But the conference in Sedona is a good one, put on by the Mayo Clinic, and Texas kept calling me.

10/7/23: Drive to Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument

Our flight got into Phoenix early but after taking the malfunctioning SkyTrain to the “rental car palace,” as Erik calls it, and stopping at REI to get a fuel canister, we didn’t get on the road until 10 am. Then we got to cruising on I-10, past Picacho Peak that we’d climbed four years earlier, past Tuscon, and eventually onto New Mexico.

Somewhere I’d learned about the Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument and they looked like what I like – steep mountains – so decided this would be a good destination for camping our first night en route to the Texas high point. A couple weeks prior, I’d stumbled onto a blog about climbing Organ Needle and so we set that as our goal for the next day. Between Summit Post and this blog, we found some conflicting info about whether we could or could not camp in the National Monument. Alas, after going through a gate that said it closed at 8 pm and the signs at La Cueva Picnic Site which noted “day use only” we backtracked and then headed north on Baylor Canyon Road that spit us out in some national forest land where there were a few others dispersed camping.

After parking our rental car, we finished loading our backpacks and headed out on what we planned to be an overnight 18 hour adventure. By the time we left the car, it was just about sunset and so we didn’t have long to hike if we wanted to pitch the tent with some daylight left. Hence, after hiking on a rough gravel road and then up a very loose rock “road” that was closed to motorized traffic, we arrived at a couple areas that didn’t have much underbrush and decided things probably wouldn’t get any better so we set up our tent and cooked dinner before it got completely dark.

We had a bit of time to kill before it was late enough to go to bed and so we enjoyed looking at the city lights of Las Cruces below us and the stars in the sky.

10/8/23: Organ Needle Summit Attempt

At 6 am the half moon was still bright and we had just enough daylight to see what we were doing so we packed up camp and ate breakfast, knowing that even though we didn’t have many miles on the day, something like 8, we did have 3,000 feet of climbing and that would start gradual and get really steep. The blog noted the trail was overgrown with cactus so both Erik and I wore pants.

The loose rock road we hiked on was a bit annoying and even though the grade was modest, the rocks often slipped back when we took a step. At least we got to hike in the shade. We kept up a steady pace until we came in with the main trail from the La Cueva Picnic Area. This trail was largely easy to follow but it was steep, something I didn’t fully appreciate until we headed back down.

The main goal for the day was to arrive at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, wherein the Texas high point is located and where we’d secured a campsite, before it got dark. The Texas high point was my priority of this whole trip. It was a three hour drive there and I was all confused by time zones (the day prior we’d gone from Central Standard Time to Arizona Time to Mountain Standard Time) and I thought Guadalupe was in Central Standard Time, thus we’d lose an hour driving there. Hence, I figured we should be back to the car by noon which meant 2.5 hours of hiking up and then 2.5 hours back down.

Our first hour we made reasonable time but then just after Yellow Rock we got off the main trail (missed a gully) and after both Erik and I got some cactus burs in us, we found the trail again (partly aided by another couple – the woman was super jacked – who we then followed although they were out of sight so fast). Next we hit a steep section of granite slabs (where Erik finally convinced me we needed to stash at least half our gear and from here he carried the pack) and more steep trail until we arrived at Juniper Saddle.

By now it was past the time we’d decided on to turn around but we both kinda wanted to keep going and so we did, heading left, hiking up a somewhat hidden but well established trail through some low evergreens. Then we came out on more slabs where we turned right, before veering left again and hiking through more cactus. Eventually we got into some woods, oak trees actually, in a gully where there was a narrow and steep trail that we followed to another saddle.

By now it was pushing noon and we weren’t certain where we were. Given the high vertical walls around us, we didn’t know if we could trust Gaia. We’d been looking for a crux steep section where there was a blue rope and to confuse matters more, as we stood on the saddle we thought we saw the rope up high above us to the south. This rope was above a 70 degree pitch.

After our failure of Gannett this summer, I at least needed to try the pitch. I got up on it and my right toe didn’t like it, trying to dig into a half inch hold in my hiking shoes. In the end, I figured it was a bad decision to continue this way because the danger didn’t outweigh my desire to get to the top and we didn’t even know if this was the right route and we were already late.

As I began heading down, which we’d decided to do given that we were already behind time, Erik explored more behind the saddle and thought maybe he’d found the correct trail to the peak to our north. The route down was super steep but at least now there was less route finding and we made good time. It was steep though, mush steeper than I’d realized on the way up. I was admittedly getting frustrated and found this day to be more difficult than anything we’d done this summer in Utah or Wyoming.

We decided to not take the road down we’d come up and instead took the trail to La Cueva Picnic Area and then took another trail to our car. The trail was still a bit difficult to follow and probably the most winding trail I’d ever been on. I don’t think it ever went straight for more than 3 feet until we went through the gate into the main La Cueva area. Unfortunately we didn’t have anytime to explore the caves and then had to do some bushwacking to find the trail back to our car.

This day kicked my butt and made me feel like “Worlds Slowest Hiker” but we also didn’t have many others to compare to. We’d only seen that one couple on the mountain and it was a beautiful Sunday. Obviously the trail wasn’t very popular. My quads were super sore for the next two days so the route must’ve been steep.

Once back at the car we quickly got settled and began our drive to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This was the first time in Texas for both of us and they had weird special turnaround ramps at the freeway exits. We took the highway up and over the Franklin Mountains and then kept driving east towards Guadalupe, stopping only briefly at the West Overlook on the way up the Franklin Mountains and at the Salt Flats.

It turned out that Guadalupe National Park was really in Mountain Standard Time (the divide was across the highway and our cell phones were quite confused) so we ended up arriving just after 5 pm. This gave us enough time to figure out the campsite area, get our tent set up, and dinner cooked before it got totally dark.

10/9/23: Guadalupe Peak

The high point of Texas is Guadalupe Peak, 8,751 feet, in the far southwest corner of the state, near El Paso. There’s a good hiking trail to the top in the national park. Again we got up early and were on our way just before 7 am. Erik had me carry the pack with 4 liters of water cause he thought I was in better shape. Within the first 20 minutes we’d passed two hiking couples. Then we were closing in on a group of four guys, probably a decade younger than us, obviously military. As we blew by them I could sense the leader trying to keep pace for awhile and it reminded me of an article titled “Testosterone Fog” that Jan Guenther wrote back in the day for Master Skier. It wasn’t long until we dropped those guys for good. I wasn’t feeling like “World’s Slowest Hiker” anymore.

Done with the first face of switchbacks, we were happy to spend the next third of the hike in the shade of the mountain on longer switchbacks. There were also trees in this section. Just before coming up to the trail to the Guadalupe Peak Campground, we caught up to a couple girls having a snack but then when we stopped for a couple photos they got ahead of us. From here we were in the sun but nearing the top for the last final switchbacks.

We made it to the top at 9 am, after 2 hours and 10 minutes of hiking. It was 2,900 feet of climbing in 4.2 miles. Since we had good weather, we enjoyed our views on top and weren’t in a hurry to leave. A couple groups came and went from the top and those four military guys made it up there before we headed down.

The hike down was uneventful except that Erik wanted to stop at the Guadalupe Peak Campground to check it out. The trail over there was a solid 5 minutes off the main trail and there was no water. As we kept heading down, we came up on a couple with giant backpacks. They’d camped at the Guadalupe Peak Campground and I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth they had in those monstrous backpacks and how they could possibly be so slow as to have only made it a mile down the trail by 11:30 am.

At the junction with the horse trail, we took this to detour to the Devil’s Hall since it was still plenty early in the day. While longer than the switchback route, the horse trail is almost flat. It was a bit overgrown and I don’t like “bushy” trails. I have this idea that if I’m on a trail, my legs shouldn’t touch any flora:)

By the time we started hiking up the Devil’s Hall Trail, which turned out to be a stream bed, I was dragging. It was probably a combo of the heat and a false flat. I rallied after we stopped for second lunch and eventually found my second wind hiking back out.

It was just 2 pm when we arrived back at the campground and even though it was barely 70 degrees, the sun was blazing. We killed time in the visitor center and then as the sun started going down did some reading before it was time to make dinner.

10/10/23: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

As a 9-year-old I’d visited Crystal Cave near Spring Valley, WI with my family. I was introduced to the stalactites and stalagmites and saw bats hanging from the ceiling. I figured if I’d seen one cave I’d seen them all and my vote for this day was to head to El Paso and take in some culture. We’d heard from friends who’d been in the area that Carlsbad Caverns were not to be missed. Erik wanted to go there and he won this one.

I couldn’t find any good maps of the caverns online but this free map was provided at the national park:

I’ll spare you most of our photos from the caverns but suffice it to say they were way larger and deeper than Crystal Cave. We took the elevator to the main room and then hiked the 750 vertical feet of switchbacks to get to the natural entrance despite the ranger warning us that this was a “very steep trail” and that we should consider going down instead which is usually what everyone else does. We wanted the workout and going up is easier on the joints. On our way up, a couple around age 70, passed us as we stopped to gawk. There is hope as we age:)

Then we drove up to the Albuquerque area for one last adventure before going to my conference in Sedona.

10/10/23-10/11/23: Hiking on the east side of Sandia Mountain

Ideally we would’ve done one more cool adventure but aside from the waning autumn daylight the primary goal for the 11th was to buy World Cup tickets for when the cross-country ski pros come to our home town next winter. Hence, we needed to make sure we had cell phone reception.

I found the Canyon Estates – Grand Enchantment Trailhead from which to begin our adventure. It was 5 pm when we got there so had about two hours until darkness. There was a labyrinth by the trailhead and Erik suggested we do that before starting out. From the map I’d eyed a small saddle where a trail branched from that to Tavertine Falls. We took this and found a flat spot, albeit on the side trail, to set up our tent. From here we hiked to the top of the ridge where we had a view of the Tijeras Mine. When it was almost dark we retreated to the saddle to set up our tent and get ready for bed.

We got up around 6 am but World Cup tickets didn’t go on sale until 8 am Mountain Standard Time. Given I didn’t want to risk loosing internet reception, we stayed put on our saddle, hanging out waiting for the time. I hiked down the trail a ways in the opposite direction we were planning to go to get warm and get in some more steps.

Once 8 am came and World Cup tickets were procured, we set about hiking up Sandia Mountain with the intent of turning around after a couple hours.

First we hiked by and then down to the Tavertine Falls. There were some mini caves below the small falls. Above the falls we found a very small stream and some campsites. Then we kept hiking up, taking the trail that follows the ridge at the next intersection. This one climbed gradually and even had many flat areas. Occasionally we got some good views back to the mine or out to the east.

Had we had a couple more hours we would’ve hiked to the top of South Sandia Peak, but I wanted to get to our hotel around 5 pm and even losing an hour to go back to Arizona time still meant we should be done hiking by noon. We decided not to stress ourselves out by pushing for this summit and instead turned around at 10 am and made it back to the car by noon. Doing this, after a stop at the grocery store, we still didn’t get to our hotel until 6 pm. As we drove that afternoon and approached Flagstaff, Humphrey’s Peak, the Arizona high point came into view which was cool to see since we had already done it. Once we got to our hotel in Sedona, we enjoyed dinner on our balcony before hitting up the hot tub and showers.

10/12/23: Sedona Day One

While Sedona may conjure images of manicured golf courses, sipping wine by the pool, and designer shops, that’s not how I roll. Back in 2014 our adventures included hiking up to Cathedral Rock, Wilson Mountain, and the Natural Bridge. These are all popular hikes. This time I looked at Gaia and tried to figure out what we could do from the hotel AND mostly running because moreso than ever I’m determined to be in really good shape for this ski season. Hence I found a couple mesas to the east of the hotel. I planned an 8 mile figure-8 loop of sorts. It looked like some of the trails would be steep where we’d just hike, albeit briskly.

Our trouble began as soon as we arrived at the trail system and quickly learned many of the trails noted on Gaia didn’t exist. Hence, we took what did exist, finding it a bit overgrown. Soon enough we came to a trail that started climbing up onto the mesa. We took this but soon it became difficult to follow. We took a wrong turn, almost gave up but then backtracked and found the trail but then this one branched so we took the better trail and eventually made it to the top of the mesa where again there was no trail even though there should have been. We took a couple photos and then hiked along the mostly open mesa. We were always able to find our way through cactus clumps and other bushy plants.

We followed the mesa to the northeast end where we found a steep trail heading down to the valley. Erik had no more than remarked that the trail was easy to follow and we lost it. We bushwacked back to the trail which followed the ridge. It was steep until it leveled off. From here I kinda wanted to just get back to the road, seeing as the first 3 miles of this “run” had taken us 1 hour and 45 minutes. The trail seemed to go this way and back the same way, was rarely straight, and I had the impression we were running in circles. The terrain here was gentle enough that there was no reason for switchbacks.

Eventually we came out into a neighborhood and decided to take this back to the main road (Sedona area is very suburban in that there are few streets that connect between neighborhoods) but alas we found ourselves trapped in a gated community. Perhaps this is me being naive, but I’ll admit here that I didn’t fully grasp the concept of a gated community until I was like 26 years old (I grew up in an impoverished neighborhood in a grid city).

Fortunately there were some guys in a work truck who had the code and we followed them out and then took the main roads back to our hotel, arriving just as it got dark.

10/13/23: Sedona Day Two

After our previous day’s adventure, we had some inkling that the trails marked on our Gaia map might be overgrown. It seems there are some really popular trails in Sedona and some really unpopular trails in Sedona.

The goal for today was point 5,259 feet, a mountain we could see from our hotel room. Again, we did this loop from our hotel, running the first mile gradually uphill along the main drag before we veered off onto some trails. Initially the trails were moderately wide and runnable with a barely perceptible uphill grade but once we started climbing to a saddle, the trail got narrow and bushy and we just walked.

On the other side of the saddle we lost the trail and just kinda found a route down the steep rocks. Once down, we picked up the trail again as it skirted the south face of the mountain. The trail was slightly difficult to follow, narrow, and often off-camber with a bit of a drop so we just walked fast. Once we hit the main trail coming up from the road, we were mostly able to run as we gained some elevation.

This trail was nice and we missed our trail heading steeply up the mountain. Erik realized this first and so we had to back-track but we couldn’t find the trail. After bushwacking 100 feet, we made our way onto the trail. Soon it got really steep but per the map this didn’t last too long. After the steep section, we followed the trail to the northwest ridge but then again had difficulty figuring it out. The “trail,” really more social at this point, likely went all the way out to the ridge.

By the time we got to the summit it was 5:30 pm and we didn’t have much daylight left so we couldn’t stay too long but we still took a bunch of photos.

It was nice that we mostly knew the route back down. We learned why we had missed the trail up the mountain twice as the intersection was overgrown with two bushes! We didn’t go back the way we came over the saddle and instead took the road back into town and to our hotel. There were a few clouds which made the sunset quite spectacular but it got dark before we made it back to our hotel.

10/14/23: Sedona Day Three

I was lacking some inspiration but mostly didn’t want to drive too far. I’d had thoughts of doing the Soldier Pass Trail but ultimately didn’t want to drive even that far so instead we drove up to the Little Horse Trailhead where we did an out-and-back to Chicken Point and then a loop farther north, almost to the Broken Arrow Trailhead.

There were so many cars in the parking lot we almost didn’t get a spot. The trail was super wide and easy to follow with the trails getting slightly less narrow and slightly harder to follow as we headed up to Chicken Point. It was at least 90% runnable and we made good time to Chicken Point, staying ahead of a couple mountain bikers.

Apparently all the people are at Chicken Point because that’s where the pink jeeps go and Erik loved watching the pink jeeps climb up crazy rocks. I’d hate being in one of those jeeps for fear it would topple over.

After Chicken Point, we took the upper mountain bike trail which I would say was definitely deserving of it’s double black diamond rating. We got some good views to the north and I found a pointed mountain that looked intriguing to climb. I later checked out that map and learned it was Capitol Butte which is of course trail-less but there looks to be a creek drainage on the south side that just might be the ticket up. Some inspiration if we return to the area, I guess!

We ran a loop almost back to the Broken Arrow Trailhead, then took the Broken Arrow Trail back to Chicken Point, passing by the Devil’s Dining room which appeared to be a small cave but it was heavily fenced off so we didn’t explore closely. Once back by Chicken Point we hiked up higher to the White Line Trail which is a pretty extreme mountain bike trail.

After Erik hiked out high on the smooth rock on the white line (I wished he’d have had some of the gumption a couple months earlier for Gannett Peak), we ran back to the Little Horse Trailhead and got back to our hotel balcony in time to enjoy a sunset dinner.

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If we had to do this trip again: We wouldn’t have had to buy the World Cup tickets and we could’ve hiked a bit higher the evening we were on Sandia Peak so we could’ve made it to the top the next day.

Best Decisions: While this trip involved lots of driving, I had to get that Texas high point out of my system. I also enjoy seeing the country (while Erik does the driving) and going through Roswell, with all its UFO fame, was cool.

Next time: I’m somewhat doubtful that we’ll try to take revenge on the Organ Needle but I would like to backpack the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in New Mexico. And because I just might go back to that conference in Sedona I’d set my plans on (1) Capitol Butte, (2) the Soldier Pass Loop, and (3) a run from our hotel heading up the main trail from from the Red Rock Visitor Center on the Hot Loop to the mesa farther east that we didn’t do on our first day in Sedona this trip.