A Visit to Organ Mountains National Monument

Southern New Mexico just doesn’t ever really disappoint me in my travels down there. The landscape becomes much simpler as the trees of the Northern 1/2 of the state give way to pure Chihuahuan desert in the southern part of the state.

This creates ample opportunity for sky captures that are incredible as well as for some simple and fun landscape photography.

Myself and Sara took a hike in Organ Mountains National Monument to enjoy some public lands and the beauty that Southern New Mexico has to offer. The trail we took (Soledad Canyon) didn’t have the most expansive views of the tallest peaks of the range, but there was ample opportunity to give some ideas a try.

The wide open views of Southern New Mexico.

I enjoyed the views in color and black and white. Especially when the sun started trying to hide behind clouds.

Worst part about the desert though: Cacti. They’re kinda mean.

Beautiful scenes were everywhere as the sun angle lowered towards the horizon.

These Yucca were great subjects throughout the hike. A bit of a grad-nd filter to give the contrast needed and whammo!

The view back to the west was stunning at times too. It wasn’t apparent readily we were gaining so much altitude but here we were looking way down at our car.

Loved all the little opportunities to play with depth and balance.

The differing colors of the mountains at this range was a fun subject to play with in black and white.

As the day turned to darkness, shot from the parking lot.

Moonrise over Organ Mountains National Monument. This was actually shot handheld at 120mm. The IBIS on the Panasonic G9 is stupendous.

 

All in all it was another great trip south. I can’t wait to make my way back to this beautiful desert landscape next summer for monsoon season!