The Pecos National Park covers a thousand years of local history, and offers fascinating glimpses to the local cultures and the Spanish colonization of the area. The ruins trail is just about two kilometers long, but the area offers additional attractions which can be combined into a full day trip from Santa Fe.
The park is some forty kilometers southeast of Santa Fe, next to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Santa Fe National Forest and the town of Pecos. The best way to reach it is by car; arriving from Santa Fe, exit at the Pecos-Glorieta interchange 299, continue east on NM50 to the town of Pecos and then turn south on NM63 and continue for some four kilometers. From the other direction, exit at Rowe interchange 307 and go north on NM63 for eight kilometers until the park entrance.
The visitors' center offers a short video movie which is essential for understanding the ruins; it is open daily from 8am to 5pm except on January 1 and December 25. The entrance fee of three dollars includes the movie but not the site's map. The friendly clerk loans some of these for free, under the condition that they would be returned in the way out.
The ruins are of three types. The pueblo itself, having been constructed of short-lived adobe, was reduced to its foundations and my imagination had a hard time trying to picture the four and five stories high buildings. Next to them is the Mission Church, which belonged to the Franciscan and has its walls still standing; it is part of a destroyed complex which included a convent as well and was finished in the early seventeenth century. The most intriguing parts of the tour are the kivas; one of them has been completely restored down to the wood parts. Kivas are underground circular rooms, with narrow wood stairs leaning on a small opening on the wooden roof. They were social and ceremonial spaces with nothing within except for a firepit, a ventilator shaft and a sipapu, a hole in the ground hat symbolizes the place of humans' emergence and point of access to spirits dwelling below. The trail connecting the different parts of the park offer superb views of the area, from lush pine forests to eagles searching for prey. Rattlesnakes are supposed to exist and many signs warn of their presence, but we didn't see any.
After visiting the park, it was only natural to stop at Pecos for lunch; at the small town we found only one convenience store which wasn't very well equipped and one restaurant that closed it doors twenty minutes before our visit, at 2pm. With a few snacks in the pockets, we continued north and up along NM63 and parked at the Santa Fe National Forest entrance.
A small path at the bottom of a narrow valley lead into a beautiful forest of pines and aspens, which climbs up from more than two thousand meters at its base to well above three thousands at its top. Anglers did their best at a narrow stream. A sudden rain aroused wonderful smells from the fertile ground and transformed the path into a shallow stream. Oblivious to all but Nature's beauty, we just continued climbing up to heaven.