A Traveler's Experience

Santa Fe Trail (CO, NM)

The NM section of the Santa Fe Trail has many sites of natural, historical, and archaeological interest. Capulin Volcano, a cinder cone standing stark against the landscape, has short trails around the crater and into it. The ruins of Fort Union are witness to a time before the Santa Fe Railroad when it was a bustling place. Pecos National Historical Park preserves the ruins of a once populous, thriving pueblo, one of importance in the Spanish colonial period. Pecos is probably unique among Park Service sites in that the visitors center is an attraction in its own right. A gift of Greer Garson, it is constructed in a style true to the area, with marvelous woodwork and metalwork done by Jemez Indian artisans. They are descended from the pueblo people who once lived at Pecos. All along the route from Colorado to Santa Fe, if the day is windy, the driver will travel a route rolling with tumbleweed. That's Russian thistle, an exotic species that came in with the railroad, but although it's a pest, it has become a part of the Western landscape.