Palo Flechado Pass (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: "tree pierced with arrows"),Palo Flechado Pass.
New Mexico Historic Markers. New Mexico Tourism Department. Retrieved August 13, 2014. also called Taos Pass and Old Taos Pass, is a mountain pass located in

Taos County, New Mexico Taos County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,937. Its county seat is Taos. The county was formed in 1852 as one of the original nine counties in New Mexico Territory. Taos County compris ...

Palo Flechado Pass.
Topozone. Retrieved August 13, 2014. on the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway.

Geography

Palo Flechado Pass is in altitude. It is located 3.5 miles west of Aqua Fria Creek on

U.S. Route 64 U.S. Route 64 (US 64) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles (3,743 km) from Nags Head in eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 1 ...

in the Carson National Forest. A tributary of Agua Fria Creek, Palo Flechado Creek, is near the pass.

History

Comanche,

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

, and Apache used the mountain pass on a trail from the plains to and then alongside the Cimarron River (also called ''La Flecha'') before the arrival of the Spanish. It continued to be used by Native Americans, Spaniards, and Europeans on journeys to Taos. According to the historic marker placed at the pass, a band of Apaches, the Flecha de Palo, lived in the plains east of the mountains in 1706. A common theory for the name of the pass is based upon a Taos Pueblo tradition for shooting arrows into a tree at a mountain pass following a successful buffalo hunt.

Recreation

There are two hiking trails within a mile of the pass that go into the Palo Flechado Meadow and alongside a stream. The Elliot Barker Trail leads to a pond and then a dense spruce-fir forest. The La Jara Trail at Forest Road 5 parallels a stream in the Rio Grande valley.

References

{{coord, 36, 24, 52.13, N, 105, 20, 11.04, W, display=title Landforms of Taos County, New Mexico Mountain passes of New Mexico Transportation in Taos County, New Mexico