Slot Canyon is a popular 2.5-mile looped hike in Doña Ana County
A proposal to designate Slot Canyon Riverlands as a state park cleared its last committee Tuesday morning and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.
The effort started in 2023 when Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) and Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) introduced Senate Memorial 38 requesting that the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department’s State Parks Division conduct a feasibility study on establishing Broad Canyon Ranch — a 30-acre wetland about 15 miles north of Las Cruces owned by the state — as a state park. Slot Canyon lies just south of Broad Canyon Ranch and is part of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument.
The study outlined three possible tracts of land butting up against the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, including one tract with direct access to Slot Canyon, a popular hiking trail west of the town of Radium Springs. The report estimates design, construction and equipment costs between $8.1 million and $9.3 million, including the construction of a new state park visitor center and facilities, designated parking, roadway improvements, tent and RV camping areas and designated trails.
Slot Canyon has walls about 25 to 30 feet high and the trail is about a two-and-a-half mile looped hike that is very accessible for people, Patrick Nolan, executive director of Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, told Source NM. He said the hiking trail and canyon have access to the Rio Grande and are a “really good intro into why we protect” natural areas.
Slot canyons are described as narrow canyons with high reaching walls developed by water and wind erosion over many years. Utah has hundreds of them.
But having one in New Mexico is rare, according to Kyla Navarro, policy and community coordinator for advocacy organization Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks.
“It’s just an opportune place, I would say, for our community to enjoy the outdoors,” Navarro told Source NM.
Steinborn described the natural area as a “magical place” and one that could rival the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument for visitation.
“People literally have to park on the side of the road, hop a fence, head to this slot canyon and with this [park], we’ll actually have this amazing destination that will…I think frankly grow the regional outdoor economy and just be another feather in the hat of New Mexico,” Steinborn told House Rural Development, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee members during a March 4 hearing.
If HB219 passes, the Slot Canyon Riverlands State Park would join the 35 other state parks operated in New Mexico.
According to the fiscal impact report, EMNRD calculates a new state park will require $398,500 in recurring funding for the agency, which would include funds for four full time employees, two seasonal employees, utilities, equipment and maintenance.
Sens. James Townsend (R-Artesia) and Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell), members of the Senate Conservation Committee, asked about park visitor safety in cases of flashfloods during a Tuesday hearing.
Small told committee members the park will be able to work with the nearby Elephant Butte Irrigation District to monitor rainfall, adding that safety will be a large part of the buildout of the state park, including signage and clear access to the park itself.
“Right now, there’s a state road that sort of runs in between a couple of the main features, and one of the big things is to make it safer,” Small said. Visitors currently have to hop over a fence to gain access to the hiking trail. “If this gets the use that it’s expected to get, because it’s already a very popular area where a lot of folks from the region and elsewhere go to, there’s just going to be a lot more presence combined with the state park’s law enforcement presence that’s going to make it…very safe.”
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