El Camino Real and its River

In the 16th century, how would you get from Mexico City to Santa Fe? Answer: Follow the Royal Road. The Spanish explorers and the priests and settlers who accompanied them faced the incredible challenge of walking or riding on horseback for hundreds of miles from Mexico City to Santa Fe in all kinds of weather. The soldiers wore protective armor made of steel and carried heavy weapons. The harshness of the journey can be felt today by hiking in any place in the southwestern deserts for a few hours.

A shady spot on the Camino Real near Abiquiú

To help future travelers manage the trek each caravan contributed a bit to improve the trail markers. Once little more than these random trail markers, much of the Camino Real (Royal Road) is now a paved road with occasional official markers pointing out the sites of important historical events.

As they saw the first Spanish caravans approaching on the horizon, the Native Americans who lived here could not have known the extent to which the newcomers would affect their lives and that of their descendants. The new arrivals built churches using Indian labor in near slavery conditions. Then they forced the locals to worship in them. They imposed Christianity on people who did not understand monotheism or the significance of the crosses atop every church building. No doubt many of the finer points of Christian theology were lost in translation. Neither could they understand the incessant barrage of questions regarding gold, the metal that preoccupied their visitors to the point of obsession.

From the start, the Royal Road hugs the Rio Grande almost continuously from the moment it leaves the mountain crossing at Paso del Norte, now shortened to El Paso. Except for the man made environment much of what we can see today along the Rio Grande was also seen by the Spanish who came here beginning in the late 16th century. It is noteworthy that, centuries later, old Spanish churches remain standing even though they were constructed of mud bricks baked in the sun. There are few credible statistics concerning the degree to which Catholicism has replaced any of the spiritual practices of the native inhabitants.

In the more rural communities the offspring of Spanish sheep, cattle, horses and chickens still roam throughout the region. Many Americans tend to forget that the cattle brought by the Spanish were the foundation of the cowboy culture that spread throughout the American Southwest. Today, only the larger city museums of Santa Fe and Albuquerque record this aspect of regional history. The same is true of the complex history of the relationship between European Americans and the Native Americans who were here long before.

Of a dark summer night, away from city lights and after most of the car traffic has diminished, some say they have seen strange figures trudging along the old Royal Road. For most visitors the road is now disguised by well paved roadways, and bridges that span deep ravines and whisk us to our destinations. 

Early summer evening on the Camino Real