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Monday, July 03, 2006
A Look at New Mexico's 16 National Park Sites
Associated Press
A thumbnail look at the 16 National Park Service sites in New Mexico:
- Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec: Trails wind through ruins of a pueblo built about A.D. 1100, featuring roofs built 880 years ago, original plaster walls and a reconstructed great kiva.
- Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos: Known for archaeological sites, particularly in Frijoles Canyon, Bandelier has thousands of ancestral pueblo dwellings among its mesas and steep canyons.
- Capulin Volcano National Monument near Capulin: The nearly perfect cinder cone was formed from volcanic explosions 60,000 years ago. A two-mile road spirals to the top of the volcano; there are paved trails into the crater and around the rim.
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park near Carlsbad: The park has one of the world's largest underground chambers. Besides the namesake cavern, the park contains more than 100 known caves within a Permian-age fossil reef and 33,125 acres of wilderness backcountry.
- Chaco Culture National Historical Park near Nageezi: The park preserves the ruins of a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture, trade and administration dating between A.D. 850 and 1250. The site is known for its distinctive architecture, astronomical alignments and road system.
- El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail: Extending from the pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh in northern New Mexico to El Paso, Texas, the trail was the primary route between the colonial Spanish capital of Mexico City and Spanish provincial capitals, including Santa Fe.
- El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area near Grants: The monument preserves 114,277 acres of volcanic features such as lava flows, cinder cones and complex lava tube systems as well as archaeological and historic sites.
- El Morro National Monument near Ramah: A massive sandstone bluff was a landmark for travelers because of a reliable water hole. It contains signatures carved by early Spanish and American explorers and petroglyphs of ancestral Puebloans who lived atop the bluff more than 700 years ago.
- Fort Union National Monument near Las Vegas, N.M.: It preserves ruins of a fort first established in 1851 to protect the Santa Fe Trail, and includes the largest visible network of ruts from the trail. The fort was a garrison, territorial arsenal and military supply depot.
- Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument near Silver City: The ruins offer a glimpse into the Mogollon culture that lived from the 1280s until the early 1300s. The monument lies in the Gila Wilderness and is surrounded by the Gila National Forest.
- Old Spanish National Historic Trail: The trail from Abiquiu in northern New Mexico to Los Angeles marks a major 2,700-mile commercial trail founded in 1829.
- Pecos National Historic Park near Pecos: The park preserves 12,000 years of history, including ancient pueblos, two Spanish colonial missions, Santa Fe Trail sites, 20th century ranching history and the site of the Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass.
- Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque: The monument along 17 miles of a volcanic escarpment on Albuquerque's west mesa protects cultural and natural resources, including some 25,000 images carved by native people and early Spanish settlers, hundreds of archaeological sites and five volcanic cones.
- Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument near Mountainair: The monument preserves the ruins of 17th century mission churches at Quarai, Abo and Gran Quivira and a partially excavated pueblo.
- Santa Fe National Historic Trail: The trail through New Mexico and four other states was primarily a commercial road between 1821 and 1880, but also was used by emigrants, military freight, gold prospectors, stagecoach lines and fur trappers.
- White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo: The monument preserves wavelike dunes of sparkling white gypsum sand that engulf 275 square miles of desert, and also features desert plants and animals adapted to the unique environment.
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