TRAIL SEGMENT ON THIS PAGE: 
Paraje Fra Cristobal

(Trail Landmark)

>>Socorro-History.org/CAMINOREAL/Paraje

The Camino Real Mapping Project
on these web pages

is the exclusive work of the 
 
 

Paraje Fra Cristobal, located on the Rio Grande, was a major trail landmark for being the first reliable source of water after the 90-mile trek through the Jornada del Muerto.  It is a well documented site since the days of Oñate.  It was a camping area, or Paraje, along the river and grassy river banks for the livestock - though little else.  Northbound caravans would often stop for a day or two to rest and recover from the trek through the Jornada del Muerto.  Southbound caravans would stop to ensure the livestock and draft animals were well grazed andwater before entering the Jornada.

 

Paraje Fra Cristobal today.  The once grassy meadows at Paraje are now replaced with wild bosque of cotton wood trees, Russian Olives, etc. due to numerous river floods as the photos show.

Mesquite lined trail emerges from Lava Gate, following the lava cliffs onto the open plains for the last leg of the trail to Paraje Fra Cristobal.  Much of the linear alignment of the trail and mesquite lined trail remains visible in this area.  The visible trail disappears as it approaches Paraje and the river, presummably due to overgrazing in this area in the early 1900s.

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

NOTE: The trail in this area is part of the Armendaris Ranch for which no public

access is allowed without ranch permission. Trespassers are prosecuted.