Pecos National Historical Park

Location: Pecos, New Mexico
Date: October 8, 2011

Pecos Pueblo Mission Chruch

Pecos National Historical Park consists of several non-contiguous units around the town of Pecos, east of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I only visited the main unit, which contains the ruins of several rock and mud structures built around AD 1100.  In this same area is the Pecos Pueblo Mission Church, a Spanish mission church constructed in the early 1600s.  A short paved trail from the visitor center takes you around to these structures.

The view of the surrounding valley

The park also protects a portion of the historic Santa Fe trail that was used in the 1800s to connect Santa Fe to Missouri via Kansas and southeast Colorado.  The trail greatly helped to open the area to settlement and economic development.

White-crowned sparrow among the ruins

Another unit of the park protects the location of the Glorieta Pass Battlefield.  This was the location of a decisive Civil War battle in March 1862 in which the Union ended the Confederate attempt to cut the Union off from its western states and territories.

Pecos Pueblo Mission Church



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