Once again, we put our National Park pass to use and visited Dripping Springs Natural Area. It’s Bureau of Land Management and normal $5 but they accept the park pass so it was no charge for us. We spent the afternoon hiking around and checking out the area.
First, we hiked out to the namesake, Dripping Springs. We did indeed see a dripping spring. Dripping Springs Resort was originally built by Colonel Eugene Van Patten in the 1870’s. It was originally called Van Patten’s Mountain Camp and had 16 rooms, a big dining room, and a concert hall. Rumor has it Pancho Villa stayed here. In 1917 Van Patten went bankrupt and Dripping Springs was sold to Dr. Nathan Boyd. By the time he acquired the resort, his wife contracted tuberculosis. Boyd converted the resort into a sanatorium and built new structures for the housing and care of patients.
After checking out the various buildings, we continue on a loop out to what is a waterfall in certain times of the year. It was barely even a trickle today, but Filmore Canyon was a pretty canyon to explore nevertheless. Continuing on, we hiked up and over a hill along a rocky outcropping. Pretty interesting geology up there. Around the backside of our loop we found La Cueva (the cave).
La Cueva was more of a rock shelter. The signboard said the shelter was occupied from almost 5,000 BC through the historic period that followed the arrival of the Europeans. Wow! A cool story about the cave..Giovanni Maria de Agostino, “the Hermit”, spent almost 40 years of his life traveling. He was said to have healing powers and gained a following of those seeking his healing powers. Around 1869 he began living in La Cueva. It was dangerous and some friends down in Mesilla, NM warned him of this. To appease them, he told them he would build a fire in front of the cave every Friday to show he was safe. Only, one Friday there was no fire and his friends arrived to find him lying face down on his crucifix with a knife in his back. Rough times.
Back at camp I enjoyed a sunny evening and took some time to catch up on reading. I’m reading Samantha Powers’ memoir. It’s heavy stuff but important.
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