La Bajada Field Trip Friends of Archaeology Trip

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is the earliest Euro-American Trade route in the United States, tying Spain’s colonial capital of Mexico City to its northern frontier. We will tour the La Bajada scarp, the most arduous part of the 1,600 miles long trail, and see four historical routes and six archaeological sites which have been documented recently by Dr.Peggy Gerow, one of our tour guides. The archaeological sites are part of a larger landscape that has been in use for thousands of years, including an AD 1400-1600 terraced agricultural field and rock shelters. We will also see two previously unrecorded stretches of road, a wagon road improved by the U.S. Army in the 1860s, and early twentieth century alignments of New Mexico Highway 1 and Route 66. 

The La Bajada/El Camino Real tour will be led by Michael Romero Taylor and Dr. Peggy Gerow.  Mike Taylor, who is with the National Park Service, coadministers, with the Bureau of Land Management, the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail.  Dr. Gerow is the Project Director and Historian for University of New Mexico’s Office of Contract Archaeology. Trip coordinators are Mary Anne Sanborn and Kathy McRee. Trip Rating: Strenuous.  Participants must be in good physical health. Activity will include steep grades and rough, uneven surfaces. 

To reserve a place on this trip, please call the FOA Reservation Hotline, (505) 982-7799 ext. 5, beginning on September 19th after 12:05 am.  Participation is limited to 20 people.  Cost per person is $60 for FOA members, $70 for nonmembers.