![]() As Hwy 161 turns back toward the south, you are crossing the plain where the Mountain Route and the Cimarron Cutoff joined back into a single Santa Fe Trail. On NM 161, at about mile marker 19, you are due south of the ghost town of Tiptonville and are just a few hundred yards southwest of the site of Fort Barclay, originally built where the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail crossed the Mora River. If you decide to visit Loma Parda, please respect the rights of property owners and stay on the road. ![]() The road is open to the public, but only the roadway. You can read about Loma Parda on the back side of this map. Halfway between mile markers 14 and 15 you will pass the unmarked county road leading north to the old ghost town of Loma Parda. Hwy161 leads you along the lower portion of the Mora River Valley through the town of Golondrinas, past Loma Parda and Tiptonville. These are the remnants of very old and very well worn wagon tracks. Some of these ruts and swales are so deep and wide that people assume the ground has been shaped by earth-moving equipment. Ruts and swales continue to be evident on the north side of the road almost all the way to Watrous the most dramatic examples occurring around mile marker 17. By the time you have followed NM 161 for two miles, you begin to parallel some dramatic old wagon trail swales and ravines some of them three and four abreast. For the next ten miles or so, in places the ruts become increasingly visible.Īs NM 518 continues north, you reach the settlement of Buena Vista, where the Scenic Byway turns east on State Hwy NM 161. About 5 miles north of Storrie Lake you can begin to make out the faint impressions (ruts and swales) of the old wagon trails that occasionally parallel the highway. The Mora River Valley portion of the Santa Fe Trail Scenic Byway departs Las Vegas by heading north on State Hwy NM 518 past the Storrie Lake State Park toward the village of Sapello.
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