Atalaya Mountain, Carlsbad Cavern, and Organ Mountains Hike, New Mexico

Highlights of 3 separate half-day hikes we did in various parts of New Mexico. We drove to Santa Fe from Denver on 11/23, and hiked Atalaya Mountain the next morning. This is a popular local hike with 6 miles RT and 1700' elevation gain. The summit offers panoramic views of Santa Fe and surrounding mountains. After enjoying Santa Fe we drove to Carlsbad, NM to check out Carlsbad Caverns NP. We took the natural entrance and walked 750’ down to the bottom of the cavern which was better way than taking the elevator down. The cavern has a nice walking path throughout and the scenery was otherworldly. The GoPro video didn't capture the true beauty of the cavern and one really has to be there to experience it. In all we spent about 3 hrs in the cavern walking close to 2 miles. From Carlsbad we drove to Las Cruces NM on our way to White Sands NP. I was really impressed with the city of Las Cruces. It is flanked by the jagged Organ Mountains which offer a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities. We did a 5-mile sunset hike in the popular Dripping Springs area and throughly enjoyed it

Music:
Particle, by Borrtex
The Long Dark, by Scott Buckley
One Step Enough, by James Joshua Otto