El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the "Royal Road of the Interior," is the earliest Euro-American trade route in the United States. Linking 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. It was part of Spain's Camino Real Intercontinental - a global network of roads and maritime routes.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was blazed atop a network of footpaths that connected Mexico's ancient cultures with the equally ancient cultures of the interior West. Starting in Mexico City, the frontier wagon road brought settlers into today's New Mexico. Once travelers crossed the arid lands above Ciudad Chihuahua, they followed the wide Rio Grande Valley north into New Mexico. Many of the historic parajes (campsites) and early settlements created by the Spanish colonists became today's modern cities in the Rio Grande Valley.

In the United States, the trail stretched from the El Paso area in Texas, through Las Cruces, Socorro, Belen, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), the first Spanish capital in New Mexico. In Mexico, the historic road runs through Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potos?, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, and Quer?taro to Mexico City.

Today, the trail corridor nurtures a lively exchange of ideas, customs, and language between Mexico and the American Southwest.