The 300 Year Old Highway

Because of its remote and rugged locale, La Bajada Mesa is among the best preserved and historically significant sections of El Camino Real today, with well-worn tracks, swales and other reminders of travelers past etched permanently into the landscape. By far, the mesa's most defining feature is at its southwest edge, where the volcanic escarpment upon which the mesa sits towers 600 feet high over the plains below. the overlook is one of New Mexico's most spectacular natural landmarks. Beyond its importance as a geological landmark, La Bajada escarpment is a major cultural landmark. The routes built to cross La Bajada between 1598 and 1932 follow precontact pathways across the mesa, indicating its importance to native cultures who utilized natural topography, grade changes and drainage systems to best utilize the mesa top. Following the arrival of Spaniards in the region, La Bajada stood as the dividing line between New Mexico's primary economic and governmental districts: the Rio Abajo (lower river) and the Rio Arriba (upper river).

The Route 66 Historic and National Old Trails Road Historic District at La Bajada, consists of approximately 6.0 miles of rubble and gravel roadway that comprised a US 66 alignment between 1926 and 1931 and an alignment of the National Old Trails Highway and New Mexico State Highway 1 prior to the creation of the federal highway system in 1926. The essentially linear district lies on a northeast-southwest axis and is approximately 4.5 miles in length along the more southeasterly former US 66 alignment. The additional 1.5 miles represents the earlier highway alignment that descended the same 600 ft escarpment with a series of hairpin turns about a half mile northwest of the US 66 alignment. - AsNotedIn