Some locations speak to you, whispering quiet invocations carried on the wind and translated through rustling tree leaves and whistled songs of brightly colored birds. Time passes at that spot as it always does, but your perception of that passing seems to gently stretch, the hours in a day languidly slipping by instead of racing to an artificial end marked by minutes ticked off on a clock. The area might take on a vaguely mystical quality while not offering a specific reason for drawing your attention, like that spot in the woods behind your grandparent’s farm that you just knew had to hold a bit of hidden magic when you were a kid. Different places hold appeal in often obvious displays – the focus on the ocean and recreation in the Florida Keys, the grand mountains stretching through Colorado, and the multitude of wineries scattered around the Finger Lakes of New York are clear examples. Other areas have a more subtle, unexplainable appeal that isn’t necessarily obvious at first glance. Tucked between rocky bluffs and lying along the Pecos River, Villanueva State Park is one of those quietly unassuming yet pervasively captivating places.

With only 36 campsites, most of which are small and lacking electric and water hookups, Villanueva doesn’t draw a large crowd seeking summer recreation like at the nearby Storrie Lake outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico, or the beach-going crowd in the Gulf Shores of Alabama. While the park does get its fair share of typical weekend RVers and campers, more likely than not you’ll find quiet sites and few neighbors during the week. Listening to the steady drone of someone’s generator running at various times throughout the day is a small price to pay for the otherwise tranquil setting along the banks of the river or on the bluff overlooking the park.

Villanueva offers two very distinct camping areas. All of the electric and reservation sites are located along the main entry road running parallel to the Pecos River and are available year-round. Out of the 25 sites in the river area, nine offer electric hookups. These sites vary in size and are fairly close together, often filled with frolicking families and definitely closer to the “action” in the park. Open from May through October, the El Cerro Campground is perched atop a bluff overlooking the river campground with 11 developed sites scattered between two loops, some small and uneven, while others are large and level enough for 40-foot RVs piloted by drivers brave enough to wind their way up the steep, twisting, narrow road into El Cerro.  The one-way road honestly really isn’t difficult to drive, it’s pretty short but the curves are tight and might seem a bit tricky for a big RV or trailer.

We’ve visited Villanueva on three separate occasions (I’m actually writing this from site 31-C during our third visit) and we’ve chosen the El Cerro campground each time. The bluff-top loop has been nearly empty during the week on each of our visits, with other campers arriving only over the weekends. Most of these sites feature stone picnic shelters designed to mimic the indigenous architecture of the area, perfect for escaping the scorching afternoon sun, relaxing in the usually steady evening breeze, and soaking in the views of the surrounding ridges and valley below.

The Pecos River runs through the park, its cool waters providing relief from the summer heat and a convenient spot for families and friends to gather. When the river is shallow, the slow-moving water is ideal for wading and casually floating on inner tubes. Kayakers and paddle boarders might not find much excitement, however, unless they enjoy paddling in circles in a confined area waiting for the rains to add volume to the river. In the cooler months the river is stocked with trout, while catfish are available year-round for the intrepid angler willing to follow the unofficial “Fisherman’s Trail” to deeper holes located beyond the park boundary. The normally clear waters become slightly muddied with the coppery, faded dust from the surrounding landscape during the rainy months as storm run-off slowly replenishes the dwindling water table. In the morning following an evening storm, the Pecos resembles liquid milk chocolate like something from Mr. Wonka’s fictional factory or the simulated confection running through tubes at Hershey Park’s Chocolate World (from what I remember as a kid, anyway). While the Pecos may at times be a river in name only, the deep valley it carved over eons of time stands as a testament to the relentless tenacity of the power steadily flowing in the waters.

In addition to water recreation, the park has three short hiking trails, with the Viewpoint Loop Trail offering a near bird’s-eye view over the valley. A short two miles in length, the Viewpoint Loop climbs the steep, rocky bluffs up to a small picnic area with a few shelters that have seen better days and winds along the edge of a cliff before dipping back into the canyon as it passes the historic remains of a Spanish settlement (a section of stone wall originally built to corral sheep before the advent of barbed wire). The River Trail is a flat quarter-mile out and back stroll along a section of the Pecos, perfect for a hiker of any skill level. The El Cerro Trail leads from the river area campground up the side of a bluff into the El Cerro loop before continuing to a lookout on the opposite side of the valley from the Viewpoint Trail. At just over half a mile in length (one way), the El Cerro Trail provides another viewing opportunity for those not wishing to complete the two mile Viewpoint Loop, or for anyone seeking a different perspective of the park below.

Visitors shouldn’t expect much if any cell reception in the park thanks to the location, and we prepared for an extended, unconnected stay for our second visit after discovering this on our first brief pass through the park. We stocked up on a few digital library books and informed our families that we’d be off the grid for a week or so, only to discover that the park installed WiFi in the month or so since our first visit. While only available within close proximity to the park office, the connectivity is a welcome convenience not to mention a bit of a safety net for checking the weather forecast and wildfire updates. In my haste to find a couple of books before our arrival, I happened to choose The Martian by Andy Weir since it was available for immediate download and seemed like an entertaining story. I haven’t seen the 2015 movie starring Matt Damon, but the book about an astronaut struggling to survive after being stranded on Mars is engaging and filled with enough science-based facts to be believable. As I positioned our solar panels and surveyed the arid, rocky landscape I admit I felt a bit of kinship with the stranded astronaut as he cleaned the solar panels powering his temporary habitat on the deadly surface of Mars. Granted, the environment of New Mexico isn’t nearly as dangerous as the inhospitable Martian atmosphere and I’m definitely not a mechanical engineer, but I allowed my imagination to wander nevertheless. The sparkling, star-filled night sky also provided an appropriate backdrop to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, which I highly recommend for anyone seeking a quick yet in-depth background of the universe written in an easily digestible format.

I’m going to delve into the history of the park, the community of Villanueva, and the Native Americans of the surrounding area in the rest of this article, so if you’re only here to read about the park itself, you might want to tap out now. While I think the rest of this stuff is incredibly interesting, I don’t want to bore anyone more than absolutely necessary.

Beginning in 1967 and continuing for the next 30 years, Villanueva State Park was created in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, the state of New Mexico, and the private landowners of the San Miguel del Bado Land Grant. The Board of Trustees of the del Bado grant gifted the initial tract of land that would later become the park, which provided access to 4,800 feet of river frontage. The trustees also made 3.5 miles of the Pecos River running through the grant available to the public for fishing and other recreational uses. The community of Villanueva hosted the deeding ceremony on Sunday, February 19th, 1967 and the planning of the park began in earnest. One other note of interest – the deed from the del Bado grant includes a clause that the land will revert back to the grant if it is used for anything other than recreational purposes. Multiple tracts of land were added from both private and federal sources over the next three decades, the final and most recent acquisition completed in 1997 making the park what it is today. The current park boundary and what was originally proposed in 1967 are nearly identical.

Located about a mile outside of the park entrance, the old Spanish colonial village of Villanueva is home to around 300 people. Originally named La Cuesta (Spanish for “hill” in reference to the village’s perch atop a steep slope), the tiny town was officially established in 1808 after the Spanish government approved land grants in 1794. La Cuesta was furthest away from the political and military center of San Miguel at the time and the early residents had to rely on themselves for protection against the Plains natives. The village was a sort of buffer community in the frontier, acting as the first line of defense against hostile raids. It was also a center of trade, often in the form of captives from the Plains tribes, and four Plains captives are officially on record as being baptized in La Cuesta between 1810 and 1828.

As the village continued to grow, a church was constructed from native stone in 1831 which still stands today dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 1849, a Pecos Pueblo known as Hosta reported that of the eighteen remaining Pecos, one was living in La Cuesta. Historians believe this indicates the diverse nature of the early community and its preparedness for frontier defense. The community was eventually renamed Villanueva in 1890 for a prominent local family. The creation of the state park involved paving roads 15 miles from I-25 in the north and 20 miles leading to I-40 in the south beginning in 1966, which directly improved the economic health of the community bringing in thousands of visitors in search of “groceries, gasoline, and curios” according to John V. Young’s book, The State Parks of New Mexico. I’m not sure how well this statement stood the test of time, but Villanueva does have a single general store which supposedly also sells gas, although I haven’t seen it in person.

Villanueva is part of the greater surrounding region that included the Pecos Pueblo’s ancestral village originally named Cicuique, denoted by historical ruins about 18 miles southeast of Santa Fe. The region was home to the Pecos Pueblo who encountered Spanish explorers of the Coronado expedition traveling from Mexico as early as 1539. The chronicler Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera documented interaction with the people of Cicuique and the expedition led by Captain General Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. These early encounters are described as generally happy, with the native Pecos greeting the Spanish explorers with music and gifts of clothing and turquoise while the Pecos marveled at the Spaniards’ glass beads and drinking vessels. The good times were not to last, however, as interactions quickly turned hostile largely due to greed and suspicion sowed among the Spanish by a captive Plains native known as El Turco, who was given to the Spanish to serve as a guide by the leader of a delegation from Cicuique.

Castañeda continued to record his observations of the Pecos between 1539 and 1542, estimating the population to be around 2,000 including 500 “much feared” warriors. Reportedly even more fearsome than the Cicuique, the nomadic Teyas of the Great Plains posed an even greater threat and the people of Cicuique maintained a wary alliance with the Teyas through trade and seasonal shelter at the pueblo. Other historic records report the Pecos had an abundance of corn, squash, beans, hides, and feather robes created by “twisting together feathers and strands of yarn.” Sounds to me like an early form of weaving or knitting, a related topic covered in our previous post. In a later expedition, Gaspar de Castaño de Sosa described the clothing as a cotton blanket, highly decorated breechcloth, and a buffalo hide when needed for the men, and a blanket knotted at one shoulder, a sash, and a turkey feather robe in cold weather for the women.

The traditional architecture likely developed as defensive in nature to protect the people of Cicuique from the hostile Teya. Castañeda describes the buildings as two separate room blocks each four stories tall with a central plaza and eight large patios, each with a doorway leading into the structures. Each building had an underground ceremonial chamber (a “kiva”) which provided excellent shelter from the cold. The first two stories of each building were connected by covered passageways that could be used to traverse the entire town.

The Coronado expedition retreated back to Mexico in 1542 and 40 years passed until the Spanish returned to Cicuique. The next 100 years were filled with bitter conflict and tumultuous relationships as the Spanish attempted to lay claim to the area and convert the native Pecos to Catholicism. The Pueblo Revolt in 1680 marked a temporary hiatus to Spanish colonialism and a fleeting revitalization of the traditional native way of life. In 1692, the Spaniards engaged in an expedition of reconquest, only to find known pueblo settlements in the Pecos region deserted. The native Pecos had apparently retreated to more remote mountain settlements and the Spanish performed a ritual possession of the area. By 1749 the non-native population in the region had increased five-fold, while the Pecos population was reportedly reduced by half. The following 200 years saw a further decline in the Pecos population, as land was divided, the best irrigated areas claimed by non-native inhabitants, and the few remaining Native Americans forcibly driven from their ancestral lands. The various land grants and privatizations during that time ironically led to the establishment of the Pecos National Monument (at the Cicuique ruins) in 1965 to protect the “ancient Indian Pueblo” as detailed in the book Our Prayers Are in This Place by Frances Levine.

It seems that everywhere we turn, New Mexico is bursting with rich tradition, interesting (often harsh and brutal) history, and gorgeous scenery. Villanueva is just another example of all of those things, packaged in a tiny area along the Pecos River. It’s not flashy like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone, but the ancient spirit of the land is present in every fragrant pine needle, the frantic beating of a hummingbird’s wings, and the gentle murmurs of the river endlessly flowing through the valley. Spend a few nights at Villanueva State Park, and when your neighbor’s generator isn’t running, maybe you too will hear the soothing voice of the land echoing from the sandstone bluffs.

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SOURCES
As some of these articles include more and more detailed history of an area, I thought it would be appropriate to list the most helpful sources I used for research (and, no, these sources aren’t listed properly in either MLA or APA citation format).
1 – The site newmexicohistory.org is a treasure trove of historical information and highly recommended for anyone seeking more detailed accounts on the history, regions, and people of New Mexico.
2 – The Villanueva State Park: History of Title and History of the San Miguel del Bado Land Grant by Malcolm Ebright is a 74-page PDF report  [NOTE – clicking the link will download the file] crammed with very specific details on the Pecos Pueblo, the del Bado grant, Villanueva, and the park. This was an invaluable resource in researching this article.