The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert and ecoregion designation covering parts of Mexico and the United States. The desert occupies much of West Texas, most of middle and lower New Mexico, and a portion of southeastern Arizona, as well as the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau.

Organ Mountains National Monument
Las Cruces, New Mexico
December 2017

Organ Mountains National Monument by Paul Sager, on Flickr
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The desert is mainly a rain shadow desert because the two main mountain ranges covering the desert, the Sierra Madre Occidental to the west and the Sierra Madre Oriental to the east. The mountains block most moisture from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico respectively. Climatically, the desert has a dry climate with only one rainy season in the summer and smaller amounts of precipitation in early winter.

Organ Mountains National Monument
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The majority of the locations in the desert receive less than 10-inches of rain per year. Snowfall is scant except at the higher elevation edges. The desert is fairly young, existing for only 8000 years.

Organ Mountains National Monument
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Located 225-miles south of Albuquerque and 45-miles northwest of El Paso, Texas, the city of Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico. The Las Cruces metropolitan area had an estimated population of 215,000 in 2014. The Organ Mountains lie 10 miles east of Las Cruces.

The 1968 Clint Eastwood movie Hang 'Em High was filmed entirely in the desert surrounding Las Cruces. In several scenes, the Rio Grande River and the Organ Mountains can be seen in the background.

Las Cruces, NM from Butler Pass Trail
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The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument includes several mountain ranges of the Chihuahuan Desert. The five identified as being within the monument are the Robledo Mountains, Sierra de las Uvas, Doña Ana Mountains, Organ Mountains and Potrillo Mountains.

Organ Mountains National Monument
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Desert Spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri) is a flowering plant native to arid environments of northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora, and in the southwestern United States, in Texas and New Mexico.

Desert Spoon
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The flowering stem grows above the foliage, to a height of 15+ feet tall. The stem is topped by a long plume of straw-colored small flowers. The color of the flower identifies the gender of the plant, being mostly white colored for males and purple-pink for females. Unlike agaves, Desert Spoon does not die after flowering. However, the plant may not flower every year.

Desert Spoon
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The alcoholic drink sotol, the northern cousin to tequila and mezcal, is made from the fermented inner cores of the desert spoon. It is the state drink of the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Coahuila.

Desert Spoon
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Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument was declared a national monument in May 2014.

Organ Mountains National Monument
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