El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
National Historic Trail
New Mexico, Texas
Travel the Royal Road
The Royal Road at the Jornada del Muerto in New Mexico.
Blazed atop a network of footpaths that tied Mexico’s
ancient cultures with the equally ancient cultures of
the interior West, Don Juan de Oñate took the first
Spanish colonists in 1598 along what became “The Royal
Road of the Interior Lands.” El Camino Real de Tierra
Adentro began in Mexico City and continued to Ohkay
Owinge Pueblo, north of present-day Santa Fe, New
Mexico. As a royal road, it brought priests, solders,
traders, settlers, and officials to Spain’s northern
frontier—today’s New Mexico.
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is the earliest EuroAmerican trade route in the United States. Tying Spain’s
colonial capital at Mexico City to its northern frontier
in distant New Mexico, the route spans three centuries,
two countries, and 1,600 miles.
You can follow in their footsteps...
El Rancho de las Golondrinas, New Mexico
Places to Visit
These are only a few of
the sites that you can visit
on the trail. They represent
the variety of experiences
and activities that occured
along the historic trail
over hundreds of years
of use including Mexican
independence, American
trade, and the invasion
Socorro
of Mexico by the
US military.
Rio
Gr
an
de
Española
1
25
3
Albuquerque
4
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
5
6
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
7
8
Truth or
Consequences
Santa Fe
2
Engle
9
25
Palace of the Governors
El Rancho de las Golondrinas
Casa San Ysidro/Gutiérrez-Minge House
The Gutiérrez-Hubbell House
Tomé Hill
Bosque del Apache National
Wildlife Refuge
Fort Craig Historic Site
El Camino Real Historic Trail Site
Jornada del Muerto Trailheads
Fort Selden Historic Site
Mesilla Plaza
Chamizal National Monument
Ysleta Mission Church
La Purísima Socorro Mission
San Elizario Catholic Church
10
13
11
Nearby Town
Site of Interest
Trail Route
Las Cruces
New Mexico
El Paso
Mexico
Ciudad Juárez
Texas
12
13
14
15
To Mexico City
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic
Trail runs through the heart of the Rio Grande Valley.
Established by Congress in 2001, it is co-administered
by the Bureau of Land Management and the National
Park Service, who work with partners to foster trail
preservation and public use. Trail sites are in private,
municipal, tribal, federal or state ownership.
Bureau of Land Management
www.blm.gov/nm
National Park Service
National Trails Intermountain Region
www.nps.gov/elca
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Trail Association
www.caminorealcarta.org
Look for
signs like
these to
retrace the
Royal Road.
Scan this
code for
nps.gov/elca
