Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)

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Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area

Stretching from Albuquerque to the Colorado border, the heritage area includes Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Taos counties. It encompasses a mosaic of cultures, including the Jicarilla Apache, 8 Pueblo tribes, and the descendants of Spanish colonists who settled in the area beginning in 1598, a generation before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock.

		A Cultural Landscape Within the heritage area boundaries are many significant historic sites and a cultural landscape that reflects long settlement of the region. These include Taos Pueblo, recognized as a World Heritage Site, and other pre-Columbian and Colonial Spanish places designated as National Historic Landmarks, or listed in the National Register of Historic Places or the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties.

		Management Planning Process The Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area is required by the US Congress to complete a comprehensive plan that demonstrates knowledge of the cultural and natural resources in the Heritage Area. We need your input on what to include. Learn more here.

Community Meetings a Success

As part of the heritage area planning process, six public meetings were held throughout the region including this one in Taos. Learn more about what happened here.

Passport to Your National Heritage Area

The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) is now participating in the Passport to your National Parks program. This popular initiative offers visitors the opportunity to acquire cancellation stamps at no cost at various sites throughout the Heritage Area. The Heritage Area stamp will be complemented by each stamp-station's individual commemorate stamp, combining to serve as a unique record of each visit. The Passport program has been very successful in National Parks and National Heritage Areas throughout the nation with over one million passport books issued since the start of the program.

Current NRGNHA stamp stations include Bandelier National Monument. Future stations, to be added soon, will include Bandelier National Historic Landmark, Pecos National Historical Park, Bode's Mercantile, Ghost Ranch Piedra Lumbre Education and Visitors Center, Puye Cliffs, and Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. For more information call (505) 753-0937 or send an email to riograndenhaoffice@windstream.net.

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PO BOX 610
Española, NM 87532

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Phone

Heritage Area Information
(505) 753-0937

Climate

Northern New Mexico has a mild, semi-arid continental climate characterized by abundant sunshine. The summer monsoon season usually brings brief but exciting thundershowers in late afternoon, while winter snowstorms alternate with long stretches of sunny, cloudless days.

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