About 15 miles east of Santa Fe, I-25 meanders through Glorieta Pass, site of an important Civil War skirmish. In March 1862, volunteers from Colorado and New Mexico, along with Fort Union regulars, defeated a Confederate force marching on Santa Fe, thereby turning the tide of Southern encroachment in the West.
Follow NM 50 east to Pecos for about 7 miles. This quaint town, well off the beaten track since the interstate was constructed, is the site of a noted Benedictine monastery. About 26 miles north of here on NM 63 is the village of Cowles, gateway to the natural wonderland of the Pecos Wilderness. There are many camping, picnicking, and fishing locales en route.
Pecos National Historical Park (tel. 505/757-6414; www.nps.gov/peco), about 2 miles south of the town of Pecos off NM 63, contains the ruins of a 15th-century pueblo and 17th- and 18th-century missions that jut up spectacularly from a high meadow. Coronado mentioned Pecos Pueblo in 1540: "It is feared through the land," he wrote. The approximately 2,000 Native Americans here farmed in irrigated fields and hunted wild game. Their pueblo had 660 rooms and many kivas. By 1620, Franciscan monks had established a church and convent. Military and natural disasters took their toll on the pueblo, and in 1838, the 20 surviving Pecos went to live with relatives at the Jemez Pueblo.
The E. E. Fogelson Visitor Center tells the history of the Pecos people in a well-done, chronologically organized exhibit, complete with dioramas. A 1.5-mile loop trail begins at the center and continues through Pecos Pueblo and the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (as the church was formerly called). This excavated structure -- 170 feet long and 90 feet wide at the transept -- was once the most magnificent church north of Mexico City.
Pecos National Historical Park is open Memorial Day to Labor Day, daily 8am to 6pm; the rest of the year, daily 8am to 5pm. It's closed January 1 and December 25. Admission is $3 per person over age 16.
