Dominguez Escalante Trail

The panel misspells its own leader: Domínguez comes out Dominquez on this board. The expedition spent its first night close by, at Santa Clara Pueblo, on July 29, 1776; the next day the party rode nine leagues to Abiquiú, held a solemn Mass and stayed through the 31st before turning north. The party came back to Santa Fe on January 2, 1777, after some 1,700 miles. Alexander von Humboldt later drew on Escalante's journal and Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco's map, and left Domínguez's name out, which is why the expedition still often goes by Escalante's alone.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Dominguez Escalante Trail On July 29, 1776, two Franciscans, Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominquez and Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante set out on horse- back on an expedition from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California. The purpose of the expedition was two-fold; to open com- munications between the two-missions (Santa Fe and Monterey) and to convert the Indians (Utes and Havasupais) between pueblo land and the Pacific Coast. The party did not reach Monterey, however, but only got as far as the Utah Basin. Due to the onset of winter weather, lack of provisions and frequent deser- tion of Indian guides, their goal was reconsid- ered, causing much dissension. Lots were cast to continue on or to return to Santa Fe. Thus it was decided to turn back to Santa Fe.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Santuario de Chimayó — 9.4 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.
• Fuller Lodge — 15 mi
  The upright-log dining hall of a boys' ranch school, which fed and housed the Manhattan Project after the Army bought the school in 1942.
• Bandelier National Monument — 20 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.
• Valles Caldera National Preserve — 25 mi
  A crater thirteen miles across, floored with grass, left by an eruption 1.25 million years ago and owned privately for 140 years under a law that called it vacant land.

More markers nearby

• Española Valley — 0.9 mi
• Esther Martinez, P'oe Tsą́wą́ˀ (1912-2006) — 2.4 mi
• San Gabriel On the Camino Real — 2.4 mi
• The Bond House — 2.6 mi