New Mexico Tourism and Sightseeing

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is recognized throughout the United States of America and Los Estados Unidos de Mexico as a timeless route of trade and cultural exchange and interaction among Spaniards and other Europeans, American Indians, Mexicans, and Americans, which shaped individual lives and communities and affected settlement and development in the greater Southwest. Recognition of this route as an international historic trail will commemorate a shared cultural heritage and contribute in a meaningful way to eliminating cultural barriers and enriching the lives of people along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

The Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service are charged with joint planning and administration of the trail. A website dedicated to the trail can be seen at www.elcaminoreal.org

A Comprehensive Management Plan/ Final Environmental Impact Statement for the trail was completed in April 2004. Go to Management Docs (right) to access the plan.

The ruins trail, picnic area, and visitor center are the only areas currently open to visitors at this time. Closed areas such as the Forked Lightning Ranch, the Santa Fe Trail, and the Civil War Battlefield of Glorieta are available only through ranger guided tours. To schedule a tour, please contact the visitor center.

Petroglyph National Monument stretches 17 miles along Albuquerque's West Mesa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the citys western horizon. Authorized June 27, 1990, the 7,236 acre monument is cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque.

Petroglyph National Monument protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 25,000 images carved by native peoples and early Spanish settlers. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. Their meaning, possibly, understood only by the carver. These images are inseparable from the greater cultural landscape, from the spirits of the people who created them, and all who appreciate them.

Petroglyph National Monument is a place of respect, awe and wonderment.

Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world's largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved a white coloration that camouflages them in the gypsum sand.

White Sands National Monument preserves a major portion of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have successfully adapted to this constantly changing environment.