New Mexico "Land of Enchantment"

 Sunrise lit the Glorieta Mesa as we awoke in Pecos, New Mexico. After a rather uneventful mosey through Oklahoma and Texas, we got an early start to a day filled with surprises...and enchantment!

Pecos National Historical Park was the first destination and we arrived just as the park opened.

https://www.nps.gov/peco/learn/historyculture/index.htm

A peaceful morning hike through this ancestral valley. Signs along the path told the story of the many groups that passed along these cultural crossroads - hunters and gatherers, traders, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Santa Fe settlers, Civil War soldiers, ranchers, and tourists.

Sam and Ruby the Bark Ranger view the Trade Fair Field where trade happened between the Rio Grande Valley tribes of the west with the Plains tribes of the east.

A distant view of the Spanish Mission Church.

A wooden ladder provides entry to a reconstructed kiva.

Sam bravely descended into the darkness.

The kiva is an impressive subterranean structure used as a ceremonial and social space. The hole in the ground represented the connection to the underworld which the Pecos believed was their people's place of origin. The Pecos prayed to the underworld through ceremonies and offerings, believing these rituals were necessary to ensure good crops and overall balance in their world.

In 1536 the Spanish came in search of gold and other riches and encountered the Pecos. By 1621, the Franciscan friars built the Mission Church. Eventually, faced with ill treatment by the Spaniards, the pueblos banded together to create the first American Revolution - the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

Remains of the Spanish Mission Church

National Park crew working to preserve the ruins by applying coats of mud plaster.

The E. E. Fogelson Visitor Center had an excellent museum with detailed dioramas.

This diorama shows the size of the Spanish Mission Church.

A view of pueblo life.

*More enchantment to follow on the next post...stay tuned.