On a Mission

When I was mapping out our itinerary for this trip, the schedule for today was flexible. We could either:

• Visit the remnants of two frontier-era Army outposts, Fort Selden and Fort Craig, as well as a site along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, the Royal Road of the Interior Lands, which stretched from Santa Fe, NM down to Mexico City. 

Or...

• Visit one more NPS unit, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Because my family humors me (and they have my completist tendencies, too!), we chose the latter.

From Alamogordo, we headed north on US-54 past Carrizozo and then turned onto a very small state highway (NM-55) to eventually get to Gran Quivira. While what we were wearing was perfectly suited for the weather in Alamogordo, we were quite shocked by the drop in temperature when we got out of the car, so we quickly changed into warmer clothes.

The ranger station was closed because the ranger/volunteer had taken a lunch break, so we decided to do the same - picnic in the car! When we were ready to brave the elements, we caught our first glimpse of the mission ruins.

Gran Quivira was an important Puebloan trade center for many years before and after the arrival of the Spanish in the late 1500s. The largest of the Salinas pueblos, the population here at its peak was 1500-2000 people. From the outline of the walls, we could imagine what the pueblo "apartment" complexes might have looked like. Due to Apache raids, disease, drought, and famine, the pueblo here, as well as the others in the area, was abandoned in the 1670s.

Kiva

It's cold up here!

Then we headed into Mountainair to get the passport stamps and watch the film in the visitor center. A little further north of town lie the ruins of the Quarai mission and pueblo. 

For our final stop, we visited the Abó Ruins, just a little ways off US-60 southwest of Mountainair. We had a great conversation with the ranger there - very passionate and knowledgeable about the people who lived here and the history of the pueblos/missions.

A kiva within the church?

It took us about an hour to get to Socorro, where we are spending the night. There are a lot of people in town (like us!) for the Trinity Site Open House tomorrow, so we walked over to the Socorro Springs Brewing Company for an early dinner to beat the crowd. Great wood-fired brick oven pizza!