I took a road trip to New Mexico in November 2008. While I stayed at the Glorieta Conference Center, I spent most of my days visiting the historic sites of north-central New Mexico.
Pecos National Historical Monument at Pecos, New Mexico | November 2008
Pecos is just about ten miles down the road from Glorieta, my base of operations. It’s the site of old Native American ruins, and the Spanish built a mission church there. The photo of Pecos shows the remains of the church. After I left Pecos, I drove up I-25 north about 70 miles (through Las Vegas- apparently, the real one) to Fort Union National Monument. The monument has the ruins of three old Fort Unions- the second of which is the most interesting. Should you visit either monument, you’ll find the park rangers are incredibly nice… make sure to talk to them. One $3 ticket gets you into both monuments for a week.
The View from Fort Union, New Mexico | November 2008
My second day in New Mexico I drove south about 90 miles to the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. I saw three ruins at three locations: Gran Quivera, Quarai, and Abo. I don’t think New Mexico has bad weather, because every day I was there it was gorgeous.
The Ruins at Gran Quivera, New Mexico | November, 2008
The Ruins at Quarai, near Mountainair, New Mexico | November 2008
The Ruins at Abo, New Mexico | November 2008