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Pecos National Historical Park, located 25 miles east of Santa Fe, New Mexico, protects the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo and a Spanish mission.
History
Pecos Pueblo, also known as Cicuye Pueblo, was first built around 1100. It grew to house over 2,000 people. In 1540, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510-1554) visited the pueblo and a Spanish mission church was built there in 1619.
The Pecos Pueblo participated in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 against the Spanish, and built a traditional kiva in front of the church as a sign of their rejection of the Christian faith. The Spanish returned in 1692 and remained on good terms with the pueblo after that.
The Pecos Pueblo was abandoned in 1838, when the remaining residents moved to the Jemez Pueblo at Jemez Springs. The Pecos Pueblo became a state monument in 1935, and was turned over to the National Park Service after being declared a National Monument on June 28, 1965. The boundaries expanded to included the Glorieta Pass Battlefield (see below) on July 2, 1991, and it was redesignated as a National Historical Park.
Visiting
Pecos National Historical Park is open daily throughout the year except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Admission to the park is free (as of May 2023). There are no camping facilities. The visitor center includes artifacts found during excavation of the site, and ranger-guided hikes are offered on select days of the week.
Trails
There are three trails at Pecos National Historical Park. The Ancestral Sites Trail is an easy 1 ¼ mile loop trail from the visitor center. It takes visitors past pueblo ruins and the mission church, with plenty of interpretive panels along the way. It also has some spectacular views.
The Glorieta Battlefield Trail is a moderately strenuous 2 ¼ mile loop behind a locked gate 7 ½ miles from the visitor center. It explores one of the most important battles of the Civil War, which eliminated the Confederate threat in the West. After the Confederate Army took Santa Fe, they turned their attention towards the gold fields of Colorado. Union soldiers stationed at Fort Union joined forces with the Colorado Volunteers and confronted them at the Battle of Glorieta Pass from March 26-28, 1862. They defeated the Confederates, led by Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley (1816-1886), forcing them to retreat to Texas. The trail is behind a locked gate, and rangers at the visitor center can provide the code.
The third trail is the South Pasture Loop Trail. It’s an easy to moderate 3.8 mile loop through a pasture and along the Pecos River. The trail closes at 3pm each day, and last entry is 1pm. Hikers must inquire at the visitor center for more info.
Ancestral Sites Trail
The only trail we had time to do was the Ancestral Sites Trail. It starts with some stunning views of the snowcapped Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the countryside.
The trail then passes pueblo ruins and some kivas. One of the kivas has been reconstructed to allow visitors to enter down a ladder.
Next, the path loops around, passing more excavated kivas and providing views of the Glorieta Mesa.
From there, the ruins of the Spanish Mission come into view. An interpretive panel shows an overlay of how the church would have looked on top of the ruins.
Spanish Mission
The Spanish mission was officially named the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciúncula (Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciúncula). The first church was built in 1619, most likely by Spanish Franciscan Friar Pedro Zambrano Ortiz (b. 1586).
A second more permanent church was built in 1625, but it was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. A smaller church was built on its foundations in 1717, and makes up the ruins seen today.
