and trail to Fort Craig

 

Website courtesy of the Socorro County Historical Society (SCHS), P.O. Box 921, Socorro, New Mexico 87801 [SCHS home page]

>>Socorro-History.org/CAMINOREAL/Mesa

The Camino Real Mapping Project
on these web pages

is the exclusive work of the 
 
 

El Camino Real fords the river here to form the beginning of the West Branch trail going north. The branch along the west side of the Rio Grande was developed in the 1850s to access Fort Conrad and later Fort Craig, San Marcial, San Antonio and Socorro. It forded the river again at Lemitar to the east bank village of Sabino [map] to rejoin the main trail. Portions of the west bank trail are still visible from the ford to arouind San Marcial. Further north, the trail is indistinct due to river floods, agriculture and development.

Northbound trail comes to the edge of the lava flows and decends into the Rio Grande floodplain for a short distance enroute to Mesa del Contadero.

Much of the trail from Paraje Fra Cristobal [map] to Mesa del Contadero [map] is over a huge lava flow extending to the river.  The lava clearly dictates the route of the trail in this region, winding and curving to avoid the hard lava and outcroppings by following stretches of softer dirt and sand.