The Abo Pass Trail Scenic Byway (31 miles; N.M. 47 and U.S. 60) connects the El Camino Real National Scenic Byway and the Salt Missions Trail Scenic Byway. Start your journey in Belen, settled as a farming and railroad community in the Rio Grande Valley. Traveling southeast, the road crosses grasslands before ascending into the Manzano Mountains. You will cross this range through the Abo Pass which gives the road its name and offers spectacular views. The pass has provided a crucial point of access for centuries. The route can be dated back to 1450 AD, which was first used for trade by Native Americans. Spanish settlers later followed the same corridor. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) built a cutoff through Belen at the turn of the century, and routed all transcontinental freight trains over the pass. This history travels alongside you, with the tracks paralleling and crossing the byway. The scenic byway designation ends at San Gregorio de Abo Mission, one of three units in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The ruins of a stone mission church mark the place that was inhabited from the 1300s to the 1670s.
Belen, NM
