An early beginning to our day of southward travel, after awakening in our icy little [VW] house at a highway rest area in northern New Mexico. We arrived before the ranger did, even with stopping to view Santa Fe Trail ruts along the entry road. For 40 years in the second half of the 19th Century, this fort, built on basically stolen land, was a supply depot, sending equipment and food to other forts in the southwestern frontier. National Park Service caretakers are working now with teams in other agencies to discover the best ways to stabilize and maintain what remains of the adobe and stone buildings.
