• Two-wheeled carretas carried goods up El Camino from Mexico City in 1598; walking the trail in the Jornada del Muerto, a scorching 90-mile stretch of El Camino wherein colonists had to leave the cool Rio Grande to continue their journey north

    El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

    National Historic Trail NM,TX

Photo Gallery

  • National Park Service superintendent Aaron Mahr.
    Discover the Jornada del Muerto
    12 Photos

Did You Know?

Traces of a dirt road, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, stretch across a southern New Mexico desert landscape

The dreaded Jornada del Muerto is a 90-mile stretch of almost waterless desert on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro in present-day New Mexico. In the 1600 and 1700s, Spanish trade and supply caravans traveling the road between Mexico City and Santa Fe would move through this section at night.