In collaboration with the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and various Mexican organizations, CARTA serves as the official association of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (The Royal Road to the Interior) National Historic Trail. We invite and encourage you to join us whether your interest lies in archaeological and historical investigation, trail conservation, public education or simply grand adventure and discovery.
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro begins in Mexico City, the ancient capital of Mexico, and it ends in Española, near San Juan de los Caballeros, the first European settlement in the Southwestern United States. Including its branches, the trail extends for nearly 2000 miles. From the capital, the main artery of the trail through Mexico passes through Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua City and Juarez. In the sourthern part, trails from other towns fed into El Camino Real like tributaries empty into a river. The trail crossed into the United States at the famous Río Grande ford, between Juarez and El Paso, and it leads north through Las Cruces, Socorro, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and, finally, to Española.
In the latter decades of its history, the northern segment of the trail, especially from Chihuahua City to Santa Fe, became a substantial route of commerce. It frequently served U. S. traders who hauled merchandise westward across the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe then southward over the Camino Real to Chihuahua City. That northern segment became known as the Chihuahua Trail. The segment that lies within the U. S., from the Río Grande ford to Española, became a national historic trail under the "El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail Act," enacted by the 106th Congress on October 13, 2000.
Measured by the antiquity of human traffic, the migrations of populations, the flow of cultural currents and ideology, its early role in Spain's Southwestern colonization and the drama of the human theater, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro ranks as one of the most historic trails in North America. It offers a rich adventure through ancient campsites of hunting and gathering peoples, rock art of early village farmers, ruins of long-abandoned pueblos, the heritage of still-living pueblos, quiet sanctuaries of Franciscan mission churches, plazas and adobe homes and shops from Spanish colonial times, ruins of American frontier forts and settlements, battlefields of conquest and conflicting belief systems, exhibits of history and archaeological museums, creative offerings of art museums and galleries, a choice of spicy foods and hearty desert wines, and the festivals and celebrations of a diverse cultural blend.
While the administrative and planning responsibilities rest with the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, CARTA was founded as a support organization with two principal purposes. First, we encourage archaeological and historical investigation, historic site identification and preservation, public education and exploration along the trail. Second, we facilitate the participation, involvement and understanding of the communities in celebrating the multicultural and multiethnic history and traditions of the trail.