Fall is rolling into the Sacramento Mountains, and that means Nichols Ranch and Orchards in La Luz, New Mexico, is once again throwing open its gates for apple picking, cider, and live music. The 6th Annual Apple Festival runs Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4, drawing crowds from across the region, including plenty of day-trippers from El Paso.
General admission runs $10 for anyone 12 and older, with kids 11 and under getting in free, according to Nichols Ranch and Orchards. Tickets can be purchased online through Eventbrite or at the gate, and a free shuttle carries visitors between the parking lot and the top of the festival grounds and back, according to KLAQ. The festival, as KLAQ's report notes, celebrates more than 100 years of apple growing in the Sacramento Mountains.
What's on Offer Beyond the Orchard Rows
Visitors can expect more than 70 arts and crafts vendors and upwards of 20 food and snack vendors this year, per the outlet's rundown of the event. There's apple picking straight from the trees, plus festival staples like apple pie and apple cider, and a petting zoo and games are set up for kids. Live music plays throughout both days, and beer and wine from area breweries and wineries round out the offerings for grown-up attendees.
The ranch grounds sit at roughly 6,800 feet above sea level, offering sweeping mountain views over the Tularosa Basin. Because the terrain is uneven and unpaved, organizers recommend comfortable walking shoes and plenty of water, a detail the same report emphasizes for anyone planning to spend a full day wandering the orchard.
Deep Roots in the Sacramento Mountains
Nichols Ranch and Orchards is far more than a pop-up event. The family first homesteaded near Cloudcroft in 1882, and W.W. “Bonnie” Nichols planted 30 acres of fruit trees in La Luz Canyon in 1941 after returning from service in the Civilian Conservation Corps, according to the ranch's own account of its history. Today the operation is run by Bob and Sue Nichols, with Bob carrying on the work his father, Bonnie, started, making it one of Southern New Mexico's oldest continuously operating family-owned fruit farms, as reported by KRWG.
Apples aren't the only crop coming off this land. Gala, Honeycrisp, and Golden Supreme varieties headline the fall harvest, but the ranch also grows cherries, pears, apricots, plums, and figs, and raises grass-fed cattle, according to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. The farm keeps the celebration going well beyond October, too, hosting an annual Cherry Festival every Father's Day weekend in June that marks a century-long tradition of mountain cherry production in Otero County.
A Regional Tradition Beyond One Ranch
Nichols Ranch isn't operating in isolation. Nearby High Rolls and Mountain Park became major fruit-growing hubs in the early 20th century, once home to what was New Mexico's largest apple orchard in the 1940s under grower Joseph Milton Walker, according to the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. The High Rolls/Mountain Park Lions Club still hosts its own community Cherry and Apple Festivals every June and October to support local charitable programs, a parallel tradition noted by Casa Honda.
La Luz itself is a small unincorporated community of roughly 1,700 residents that leans on agriculture, tourism, and local craft industries for its economy, per WorldAtlas. Sitting about 85 to 90 miles north of El Paso, the town makes Nichols Ranch a roughly 90-minute drive for Borderland residents chasing cooler mountain air, a distance the New Mexico Tourism Department frames as a key draw for out-of-state visitors.
