Places to go in Las Cruces (Mesilla: trip , mountains, good)

[mike0421]

A 3 hour ride, but worth it, is the Gila Cliff Dwellings, north of Silver City. There is an incredibly scenic route, if you go up to Caballo, to exit 63, then go west on Rt 152. Stop off in a small, idyllic village, called Hillsoboro. There are two incredible restaurants to eat at there. Then, continue on 152 past Kingston, and into the Gila, the vistas on this stretch of the road are unbelievable. Then onto Rt 35 to Rt 15, then follow the signs for the Cliff Dwellings. This is a day long road trip, BTW. Have dinner at the Buckhorn in Pinos Altos, then take the shorter, less eventful 180 back to Deming then back to LC. I've done this twice, and had two quite memorable days.

[WildWestDude]

Did anybody mention El Paso?

Driving though the Trans-Mountain Road and back on the southern rim road aka scenic road is awesome. The area around UTEP is very pretty. There is also a racetrack and small casino across the state border called Sunland Park

[Cdeluca22]

Do not forget the Wednesday/Saturday market in downtown (saturday is better) Free!!

[TKO]

The Chihuahua Desert Nature Park off Hwy-70 is pretty cool if you want to learn about the desert around Cruces. There's Aguirre Springs on the east side of the Organ Mtn's which is a nice place to walk around and have a picinic (as yogi would say it).

Ft. Selden State Monument is about 10 miles north in Radium Springs. It housed the Buffalo soldiers and also was Gen. MacArthur's home as a boy. Not much left to it now, the adobe's have all but disintegrated, but it's a pretty drive up there if you take NM-185.

Mesilla really is the most touristy place around Cruces but it still retains a remarkable local charm. I lived there for about 5 years and it really is a different kind of place. I miss. It's a nice afternoon to walk around the plaza and look in the shops long as you get to wet your whistle at on the drinking establishments. There's some pretty good food right off the plaza as well.

If you have access to a four by four, out on the west mesa are some really cool volcanic formations. A number of lava flows, as well two features called maars that are giant crater/holes out in the middle of desert ranch land and it's neat to drive around out there.

[tecpatl]

Originally Posted by nmguy

We've decided to explore the Las Cruces area in a couple weeks and would welcome recommendations for places to visit.

White Sands Monument and Hatch are on our list. Other than that, we're at a loss for places of interest.

Does anyone have a special place or two to recommend?

Thanks.

Dear NMguy, A few of us gave you suggestions about places to visit,things to do, etc. and I'd love to hear from you about your experiences in the LC area. I'd imagine you're there right now, and I hope you can attend a Day of the Dead event somewhere.
How was it?

[nmguy]

Originally Posted by tecpatl

Dear NMguy, A few of us gave you suggestions about places to visit,things to do, etc. and I'd love to hear from you about your experiences in the LC area. I'd imagine you're there right now, and I hope you can attend a Day of the Dead event somewhere.
How was it?

Got back from our two-day trip to Las Cruces this afternoon, and I am indebted to those of you who recommended places to go.

Since we were there for such a short time, we limited our places-to-go to the following:

Hatch - Had a delicious breakfast at the Valley Cafe after taking at a gander at local chile and cotton fields.

White Sands Monument - Thoroughly enjoyed the sights and the board walk. Being a Calif. transplant, I kept listening for the roar of the surf.

Mesilla - My favorite part of the trip. We visited the San Albino Church and most of the shops. Highlight was lunch at La Posta de Mesilla, where we had some delicious enchiladas and could feel the presence of former diners like Billy the Kid, Pancho Villa, and Douglas MacArthur. I especially liked the plaza and learned that there are mariachis and artisans there on weekends. I liked Mesilla because it was a genuine place, untouched by a need to make money off of tourists (like me).

New Mexico State - My girlfriend is a real Aggie fan, so we spent this morning touring the campus and making purchases in the book store. Last night, we came across the NMSU cheerleaders in their uniforms at our hotel. They were participating in a basketball function and graciously posed for a photo with my girlfriend. It was very special.

We enjoyed our stay at the reasonably-priced Hotel Encanto, getting AARP rates. We will definitely return on our next visit.

Thanks again for your recommendations. I've kept them and will make use of them on our next trip.

[Muhnay]

Visit the Downtown mall.

[tecpatl]

Glad you enjoyed the quickie trip to LC, and that you visited my second home town, La Mesilla. Make no mistake, however.....tourism IS important to the town...very much so. It just doesn't completely take over the village or transform it into a Disney attraction. A huge amount of the towns funding is from the GRT recovered from all the money spent by tourists, visitors and locals in Mesilla. In many ways, well managed tourism does a great deal to preserve the town.
In my earlier post I suggested that you walk or take a very slow auto cruise around the neighborhoods of the old village. I hope you did so. Lots of wonderful Calles and Callejons with interesting adobe homes and barns.
As you discovered, there is a huge amount of history in Mesilla, and one can get a real sense of it thanks, in part, to the towns rigid rules about construction, style and appearance. On one hand it can seem petty and tiresome to have to get a building permit to paint your own front door, but the upshot of all the rules and scrutiny of building projects and developments in the old village is that the genuine sense of history is preserved for all to appreciate. I think it's a small price to pay for something as fragile and irreplaceable as authenticity.
I DO wish the bogusly named "custom" of keeping 4 or 5 dead cars in the yard would go away, however. There's nothing particularly customary, historic or Hispanic about having a yard full of junk (not in the process of being worked on) cars. I come from an area of Scandihoovians, Poles and Germans and there were plenty of them there,too, until someone in government showed some guts and made the offenders clean em up.
With scrap metal prices at an all time high there's just no excuse.
Pardon, my pet peeve is showing...LOL
Anyway, glad you had a great trip. Come back and see us again.
(not sure if I've got this image thing right)

<img src="http://www.oldmesilla.org/postcard/pictures/mesilla-montageweb.jpg">

[tecpatl]

there we go!

[nmmama]

I have been enjoying reading all these posts since we are going to LC next weekend, Nov. 10-12. We would never visit LC without going to Mesilla. We have found some nice things in the shops as well as the Sunday art and craft tables around the plaza.

We have done just about everything that every poster has mentioned from Cloudcroft to Gila Cliff Dwellings and have loved them all. We have hiked Dripping Springs but not Aguirre. I would love to check that out. How does it compare to Dripping Springs in terms of scenery. I don't know if we could handle 4-6 miles but would it be worth doing part of it?

I saw that the Mariachi Conference is going on while we are there and a festival in Young Park so we plan to check that out. We are flying into ABQ this time so we are planning to go to Bosque del Apache on the way down.

Thanks for all the comments.