Organ Needle is the highest point of the Organ Mountains

Organ Mountains

The Organ Mountains are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. They lie east of the city of Las Cruces, in Doña Ana County.-Geography:...

 in the south-central part of the US state of New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. It lies in Doña Ana County

Doña Ana County, New Mexico

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*74.1% White*1.7% Black*1.5% Native American*1.1% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.0% Two or more races*18.5% Other races*65.7% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

, 13 miles (20,921 m) east-northeast of Las Cruces

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Las Cruces, also known as "The City of the Crosses", is the county seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 97,618 in 2010 according to the 2010 Census, making it the second largest city in the state....

 and 4 miles (6 km) southwest of White Sands

White Sands, New Mexico

White Sands is a census-designated place in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,323 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, headquarters of the White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...

. It is at the southeast end of a narrow ridge of vertically-jointed granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 (more specifically, quartz monzonite

Quartz monzonite

Quartz monzonite is an intrusive igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. The plagioclase is typically intermediate to sodic in composition, andesine to oligoclase. Quartz is present in significant amounts. Biotite and/or hornblende...

) called The Needles.

Organ Needle is one of the most dramatic peaks in the state. True to its name, it is a steep, pointed summit. Moreover, it rises 4000 feet (1,219.2 m) above the edge of the Tularosa Basin

Tularosa Basin

The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert, east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States.-Geography:...

 to the northeast in only 2 miles (3.2 km), and 5100 feet (1,554 m) above Las Cruces, giving it as large and as steep a degree of local relief as any peak in the state, including Big Hatchet Peak

Big Hatchet Peak

Big Hatchet Peak is the high point of the Big Hatchet Mountains, a small but rugged range in the southwest corner of New Mexico, in the United States. The mountains are located in southeast Hidalgo County, about 50 mi southwest of Deming...

, Sandia Crest

Sandia Mountains

The Sandia Mountains name posu gai hoo-oo, "where water slides down arroyo") are a mountain range located in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties, immediately to the east of the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The range is largely within the Cibola National...

, and Shiprock

Shiprock

Shiprock is a rock formation rising nearly above the high-desert plain on the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, USA. It has a peak elevation of above the sea level. It lies about southwest of the town of Shiprock, which is named for the peak...

.

Climbing Organ Needle involves tricky route-finding, a vertical gain of about 4000 feet (1,219 m) and a difficult scramble

Scrambling

Scrambling is a method of ascending rocky faces and ridges. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hillwalking and rock climbing. It is often distinguished from hillwalking by defining a scramble as a route where hands must be used in the ascent...

 (Class 3+ or 4

Yosemite Decimal System

The Yosemite Decimal System is a three-part system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs. It is primarily used by mountaineers in the United States and Canada. The Class 5 portion of the Class scale is primarily a rock climbing classification system. Originally the system was...

).