Pecos National Historical Park, New Mexico - February 10th to 11th, 2026

Our friends, Dave and Sandy, invited us to join them on a two week camping trip down to Arizona at the end of January and beginning of February. This is the sixth and last post of our trip, as we were making our way back home. On this last stretch, we visited Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico.

Tuesday was a travel day from Bernalillo in New Mexico to Trinidad Lake State Park in Colorado. Along the way, we stopped at Pecos National Historical Park to get out, stretch our legs, use a bathroom and learn more about the history of the area.

At the visitor’s center, there was a nice museum explaining the history of the Pecos Pueblo along with some nice artifacts. Behind the center was a trail about a mile long that circled through the pueblo ruins. There were a couple of kivas that you could climb down a ladder into.

The Pecos Pueblo was inhabited from about 1350 to 1838. It was a thriving trading center with a population of about 2000 at its peak. The Spanish first encountered it in 1540, taking control of it in the 1620’s. Pecos was one of about thirty pueblos that revolted against the Spanish and drove them out of the area in 1680. Unfortunately, the Spanish returned and reconquered the New Mexico in 1692.

The Spanish built a Mission Church at the pueblo in the 1620’s. It was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt. A second, smaller church was constructed on the same spot in 1717. Much of the second church survives today.

The last of the Pecos people left the pueblo in 1838 to join the Pueblo of Jemez. Many of the artifacts inside the museum are on loan from the Jemez Pueblo. The Jemez Pueblo still exists today, with a population of about 2000.

For lunch, we stopped in Las Vegas, New Mexico at a restaurant. We originally picked out a place called Auntie’s Tiendita & BBQ. However, when we got there, the doors were locked. A local was getting into his car nearby and told us the place was closed that day. He recommended going to Charlie’s Spic and Span Bakery and Café or Smiling Faces Restaurant. Since Smiling Faces was not open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we went to Charlie’s Spic and Span.

Charlie’s was hopping. It was an old diner style, only open for breakfast and lunch. The menu was mostly Mexican food, with the tortillas freshly made in house. Dave opted for the beef fajitas while Sandy had the taco salad in a crispy tortilla bowl. Both Keith and Ann had the chorizo skillet. All the food was delicious.

As we were paying our bill at the cashier, the baked goods in the glass case were calling our names. Sandy bought a coconut doughnut while Ann and Keith got a large cream puff to go, to split later.

We arrived at Trinidad Lake State Park just before sunset. Ann and Sandy went for a walk to get some more steps in. They headed up the Reilly Canyon Trail a little ways before turning around. Ann startled a couple of elk in the woods as she approached. They were still staring at her when she passed again on the way back, just a few minutes later.

Keith and Ann were not hungry for dinner, as we were still full from lunch. Dave and Sandy were smart and didn’t eat all of their lunch, so they had their leftovers for dinner. Ann had a small salad, then she split the cream puff with Keith. We didn’t need any more calories than that.

We were surprised to see that Trinidad Lake had a couple of family bathrooms open, with running water, a toilet, sink, shower, and heat in each of the two rooms. However, the rest of the camper services building was closed. The dump station was open, but the rinse water was shut off. According to the confirmation email, there were also two potable water hydrants open. We did not use the dump station or water hydrants, as we would be home the following day and had enough capacity to last us until then. We averaged about one bag of water per day (2.6 gallons) for the whole trip. We did not de-winterized for this trip and used bags of water instead of our fresh tank.

Wednesday morning, all four of us ate breakfast at McDonald’s in Trinidad before parting ways. Dave and Sandy wanted to make sure they made it home before the Denver rush hour traffic. Ann wanted to make our traditional stop in Pueblo for lunch at Angelo’s Pizza Parlor on the River Walk.

When we arrived in Pueblo, Angelo’s wasn’t open yet. So we walked the Riverwalk to kill time. We’ve been here quite a few times before (Lake Pueblo State Park - August 16th to 19th, 2020). However, it looked like they were extending the Riverwalk further, extending the east branch, nice! But the construction meant that there was no water in most of the canal.

We also don’t remember seeing Lake Elizabeth before at the northwest end of the Riverwalk with the duck pedal boats. We’ll have to check that out next time we are in the area, when there is actually water in the lake.

After enjoying our salad and pizza at Angelo’s, we continued our drive. We made it home by mid-afternoon. The Denver traffic was not too horrendous yet, but it is always heavy.

Before we reached our house, we stopped off at the dump station near our house to empty our cassette toilet and our gray tank. It was the only time we emptied our gray tank the whole trip. We managed to unload most of Red Tail before dinner, making sure we got out anything that might freeze. Then we turned off the fridge, propped it open, and turned off the DC power to Red Tail.

And so ended our wonderful two week trip with our friends. It was a great, short trip and we really enjoyed spending time with our friends.

Check out our related video: Pecos National Historical Park, New Mexico

(Ann)