About Las Cruces' Picacho Hills

La Llorona is a popular legend in the hispanic community. La Llorona means 'the crying lady' and there are a few here in Las Cruces. The legend says she is a woman who killed her children to be with the man she loved, only to be rejected by him. She 'haunts' the places where she killed her children, crying and looking for them.

One of the places that I've actually heard her is on the edge of the Rio Grande river, at the aptly named La Llorona Park.

The park is located on the west side of town on Picacho Road. When I stopped by, it was around lunch time and a few folks were enjoying their hour under trees or reading. One man brought his guitar with him (he didn't want his picture taken) and was serenading us.

The mighty Rio is running at 'full power' right now for irrigation. This is the highest I've seen it in a while and it's nice to see.

This park is one of around 100 that maintained by the city of Las Cruces and more parks are coming as the city begins to expand on the idea of 'green space'. You'll find plenty of ball parks as well as a dog park, small neighborhood parks with playsets for the kids, the historic Pioneer Park (the subject of an upcoming 365 blog) and our largest park, Young Park - complete with a duck pond!

We might be in the middle of a desert but there definitely plenty of beautiful parks for you and your family to enjoy!