Bishop's Cap Peak

I knew the forecast today was for high winds. I just didn't care. I figured I had driven all the way to El Paso to drop Noelle and Sierra off at the airport, I might as well do some hiking. Luckily it wasn't too windy this morning. Anyway, after a mediocre continental breakfast at the hotel, I headed north into New Mexico and exited the intestate south of Las Cruces near Mesquite. I headed east into the desert and  parked at a parking lot for the Sierra Vista Trail.

From the parking area I headed south into the desert on the Sierra Vista Trail.

I followed the trail until I approached a nice ridge that I figured would give easy access to the summit of Bishop's Cap. Almost immediately after heading off-trail I found an unusual cache of water and energy bars.

From the cache I followed a ridge higher and higher up Bishop's Cap until I reached a sheer cliff. Instead of climbing the cliff I skirted it to the west and soon picked up a faint user trail.

Hiking the trail made the going relatively easy, but the wind began to pick up as I ascended. Luckily the last section of ascent was on the sheltered east side of the peak. I rested a short time out of the wind before tackling the final 100 yards to the summit.

There was a cairn at the summit and one just below that contained a geocache. There was also an aviation beacon near the summit.

I admired the view from the summit for a bit

and then looked through the geocache for a bit (I thought it was a register) before making my way back down to the car.