Camino Real translates to “Kings Highway” in Spanish. The Camino Real is generally considered the oldest road in Texas. It started as one of the many Indian trails in the area. When the Spanish arrived, they expanded and improved it to link their missions and forts in Louisiana and east Texas to Mexico. The Camino Real runs about 700 miles, and ties together more than geographic regions, missions, and forts: A great deal of Texas history is tied to this road.

Much of the Camino is still there today. Most of it runs along rural roads with some of the most beautiful scenery in Texas. Driving down and along it, you can see Spanish missions in San Antonio, the pine forest in east Texas, beautiful rivers, Caddo Indian mounds in Alto and many historical small towns. You can walk in the steps of Spanish missionaries in 1691, the Texas and Mexican armies in the 1830's, American and German settlers, and people like: Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, Wm B. Travis, La Salle, and maybe even Bonnie and Clyde.

El Camino Real runs through Mission Tejas State Park. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department personnel have identified much of its exact route. If you are ever there, and if you are interested, one of the Park Rangers will be happy to show you where history walked, rode horses, wagons, and later automobiles, rolled down this historic “highway.”