Old Spanish Trail Park

For more than 150 years, this ten-acre parcel preserved the ruts of the Old Spanish Trail between Las Vegas Springs and Mountain Pass. When Spain owned the Southwest, Santa Fe and Los Angeles were the only two centers of government and commerce in the region. Between 1540 and 1830, no overland route linked the two cities until Antonio Armijo of Santa Fe and his caravan of 60 men and 100 mules crossed El Cajon Pass into California. Armijo's route up Las Vegas Wash to Duck Creek, which he followed through Paradise Valley, is the basis of the Old Spanish Trail. The Mojave Desert here was dry and inhospitable, and the trail passes through states that were once part of the territory of Spain and then part of Mexico.

Spring Valley, Nevada · United States