We try to keep our socks dry. Hiking in the Sierra, it isn't that hard. We take off our socks and boots/shoes and do any wet crossings in our water shoes, then stop and dry our feet, put our shoes and socks back on.

As had been suggested, this can be tedious if there are four crossings in a mile, but generally that isn't the case...and sometimes we just hike in our water/camp shoes to do that.

But if we do have a pair of wet socks to dry, they are hung on the outside of the pack and are usually dry in a couple of hours...