san agustin pass

What a view...be sure to stop and look at the White Sands Missile Base below and thpe mountains around it.

This is a great place to stop either on the way to Alamogordo and points north or Las Cruces and points south.

I've been driving over the pass my entire driving career, and I have also been driving over it almost daily for 25 years for work. I can tell you that the wind, snow, and deer (not many left but they are out there) can make this mountain pass very dangerous. The winds have been clocked over 80 Mph up there. When it snows the road get iced quickly, and despite the snow plows etc., it does little to no good at making the road any less slick (waste of money if you ask me).

I drive this pass 5-6 days a week, as I have to cross it to go to work. It is a scenic mountain pass through an old mining town that is all but gone. It does ice over in the winter sometimes and it is a beautiful view from the top, especially when there is snow on the organs or the sacramentos.

The view over to White Sands Missile Range and National Monument and the view towards Las Cruces, NM and the Mesilla Valley.

Organ pass provides great views to the east and the west - you just can't see them at the same spot. Going west over the pass offers no place to park on the busy highway. However, as you drive over and look west you have a fantastic view to the Mesilla Valley and the many mountains all the way to the horizon. On a good day you can see the Florida Mountains south of Deming and Cook's Peak north of the city - that's a good 75 miles away.Going east over the pass you'll find a huge pull-off and parking area. The missile range uses it for some of their roadblocks. Park here and you can walk south to a BLM gazebo and look into the Aguirre Springs area of the Organ Mountains. You can also look east into the Tularosa Basin and across it to the Sacramento Mountains. The White Sands Missile Range main post sits just down the hill to the southeast. At the east end of the parking area the San Andres Wildlife Refuge has a large display and sitting benches. The display has panels representing the various federal landowners in the immediate area. Finally, there is a Nike Hercules missile standing there that was erected by White Sands Missile Range. It is supposedly slightly bent off vertical because the parking brake for a large truck failed years ago and the truck was stopped from going off the parking area by the missile.

I was on day two of my Vuelte de Nuevo Mejico Sur en bicicleta, and had been pedaling uphill, East on US 70, all morning from downtown Las Cruces. I had stopped for a much needed lunch at Thai Delight, 1 mile/1.6 km/45 minutes earlier and was now full of energy. I considered stopping at Aguirre Spring BLM campsite [http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/las_cruces/aguirre_spring_campground.html], a half-mile/1 km further East, but then that was still 5 miles/8km South on a narrow, winding paved road. It was a great site for overnighting & hiking when I was Assistant Troopmaster in my son's scout troop, but whatever fond memories I might have of it was not enough to make me detour that far off my intended route. I was ecstatic about being able to get this far with as few breakdowns as I'd had, and wanted to keep on pedaling in this beautifully clear, warm, no-headwind weather! White Sands Military Range is a bit further East, but I lack the necessary ID and the need to go there. (A few months ago, I motored to the South gate on War Road Northern extension of NM213/TX FM 3255/MLK jr, in hopes of finding an alternate bicycling route, but my hopes were dashed as signs specifically prohibited bicycles on what became a devastatingly narrow, potholed road.) Just as well to not go there anyway--I needed to continue pedaling.