Pecos

Where the plains and mountains meet.  The first time I visited there I was on my way to the Pecos wilderness backpacking.  It was overgrown and very primal. They now have a museum and visitors center complete with paved roads...Progress.
My son and I would stop there on our annual backpacking trips.  Tim would leave flowers and pretty rocks...it was a lonesome place we loved.

Pecos National Historical Park is a National Historical Park in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is located about 17 miles (27 km) east of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The site was originally designated Pecos National Monument on June 28, 1965. In 1990 new lands were added to the park and the official designation was changed to Pecos National Historical Park. It includes the Pecos Pueblo, a National Historic Landmark.
Pecos (Ciquique) was visited by expeditionaries with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540. The Spanish mission church, Mission Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciúncula de los Pecos, was built there in 1619. A traditional kiva was built in front of the church during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 as a rejection of the Christian religion brought by Spanish colonists. However, when the Spanish returned in 1692, the Pecos community stayed on friendly terms with them. The site was abandoned in 1838, after the Pecos population suffered from marauding Comanches. The surviving remnant of the Pecos population moved to the Jemez Pueblo.