Opinion: State has trails from distant past to outer space

Out here in the Land of Enchantment, we have many trails.

We have the Space Trail, which includes more than 50 archeological sites, museums, laboratories, observatories and more scattered around the state — but mostly concentrated in southern New Mexico.

We’ve got petroglyphs showing pre-historic stargazers at work and modern-day observatories like the Very Large Array and its ability to look deep into space, both into and beyond our own Milky Way.

Meanwhile, New Mexico’s Museum of Space History in Alamogordo provides us with context, from Robert Goddard’s early experimentation with rocketry not far outside Roswell to the International Space Station that orbits Earth in the here-and-now.

And we’ve got the Santa Fe Trail, an overland route that brought the U.S. into Mexico’s territory up to and beyond 1846, when U.S. Col. Stephen Kearney marched an army down the Santa Fe Trail and proclaimed this region property of the United States.

His land grab became legal with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe. Later, the railroads would span larger distances with greater efficiency, but in its day, the Santa Fe Trail connected this region to “civilization” back East.

In the 20th century, the east-to-west migration across the U.S. often took the form of travel along the “Mother Road,” as John Steinbeck called it, with Route 66 running from Chicago to Los Angeles. The highway itself was decommissioned in 1985 — eclipsed by Interstate 40 — but a nostalgic America has kept it alive, with Route 66 museums and other attractions lining I-40 exits across New Mexico and the Southwest.

Other state and federal highways around the state blaze trails through some of the most rugged and beautiful areas of our state. The Enchanted Circle in northern New Mexico takes travelers through the southern Rockies, while the Turquoise Trail between Santa Fe and Tijeras provides a whole new perspective on the East Mountains outside Albquerque.

Or, if you’re looking for a scenic southern New Mexico thoroughfare, there’s the Sunspot Scenic Byway west of Alamogordo in Lincoln National Forest. It’s a 15-mile stretch of winding highway from Cloudcroft to Sunspot — and to the Sunspot Solar and Apache Point observatories at elevations surpassing 9,000 feet.

New Mexico also has innumerable scenic trails for hiking, bicycling, horseback riding and more.

Personally I like hiking, though it has been a while since I was up for deep adventures into the wilds of New Mexico. Still, my favorites include Capulin National Monument and Mills Canyon along the Canadian River, both in northeastern New Mexico; the Valley of Fires and its walking trail through an old lava flow just northwest of Carrizozo; Bandelier National Monument and its antiquities just northeast of Santa Fe; and the Petroglyphs National Monument on the west side of Albuquerque.

Understand that these aren’t my favorite hiking trails strictly because of the sites themselves. They’re my favorites because of the company I kept. That’s what makes such visits fun — doing it with family and/or friends.

Of course, going it alone can have its benefits too, especially if you’re on a spiritual journey. Mother Nature can replenish the soul. I’m certain that Giovanni Maria de Agostini would agree.

He’s the Italian recluse after which Hermit’s Peak outside Las Vegas is named.

I too have been up that rugged, magnificent mountain, but it wasn’t a spiritual experience for me. Instead, it was more of a physical experience — I was huffing and puffing all the way up and wrecking my knees all the way down.

Nevertheless, it did give me an appreciation for the natural wonders of this big, beautiful state — both on and off the trails we’ve created to span an enchanted land.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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