EXPLORING NEW MEXICOFollowing the historic
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Sixth of a series
The only directions people had given me, and even Google too, was "in the middle of Tiguex Park." But this park is in the shape of a triangle and locating "the middle" is a little tricky, especially when you are also looking for any kind of shadow that will protect you from New Mexico's scorching summer sun.
But I was not leaving Alburquerque's Tiguex Park until I picked up the trail of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante expedition. I knew they had passed by here on their way back to Santa Fe. |
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Franciscan friars Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Anastasio Dominguez led an expedition across present-day New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a northern route from Santa Fe to the Spanish settlements in California.
Once I found the monument, partially covered by the shadow of a tree, I felt like I won a quinella! |
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Standing there, in "the middle of Tiguex Park," I knew that I had picked up their trail, because the monument told me that I was standing "a few feet from the ancient road named 'Carnue' (Mountain Road) extending from West to East" and that this road met with El Camino Real, the Royal Highway."
"Through a previous portal of time, these brave men traveled 2,000 miles, not seeking gold," the monument's inscription explains. "They sought a true route to the Pacific Coast." |
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Back in 1776, while 13 British colonies were becoming an independent nation on the eastern side of North America, these two friars, with a few companions, were marking their own history, managing to do what had seemed impossible, crossing the Colorado River in an area where it is banked by steep red rock canyons.
Although they never reached California, their journey was not considered a failure, because the journals they wrote and the maps they created guided other explorers to establish the Old Spanish Trail, a trade route from Santa Fe to California, some 25 years later. |
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I picked up their trail when traveling through Arizona, Utah and Colorado nine years ago, taking photos of various monuments marking their historic journey. See my 1994 article (and amazing photos) about their crossing at Under a Utah Lake Hispanic Heritage Lives
But I felt it was my duty to find them in New Mexico. And once I did, the New Mexico sun did not seem so hot. I was too busy taking pictures! From Tiguex Park, you are tempted to follow their trail to Santa Fe. And yet there are other Albuquerque landmarks that I must visit. This is the home of the National Hispanic Culture Center, and we have not been there yet! Perhaps that should be my next article. Stay tuned. |
Images from my 1994 trip:
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To read other parts of this ongoing series, click: EXPLORING NEW MEXICO
