3 Best Sights in Northeastern New Mexico, New Mexico

You can view more than 500 fossilized dinosaur tracks along the ½-mi wooden Dinosaur Trackway at Clayton Lake State Park, making this one of the few sites of its kind in the world. The tracks, estimated to be 100 million years old, were made when the area was the shore of a prehistoric sea. Eight species of dinosaurs, vegetarian and carnivorous, lived here. The sparkling lake that gives the state park its name is ideal for camping, hiking, and fishing.

The 1892 Eklund Hotel Dining Room & Saloon, whose splendid Victorian dining room has crystal chandeliers, apricot tufted-velvet booths, gilt-flocked wallpaper, and marble fireplaces, is quite a draw in Clayton. The hunting-lodge atmosphere in the saloon is quite different but no less authentic, with a large raw-rock fireplace, wooden booths, mounted game heads, and historic photos and clippings of Clayton's past. The town's most famous historical character, the notorious train robber Black Jack Ketchum, was hanged just out front in 1901. His last words were "I had breakfast in Clayton, but I'll have dinner in hell!" Put your boot up on the brass rail at the bar (won in a poker game) and order a cold one.

There are few better places in New Mexico to soak in wide-open prairie vistas, clear skies, and fresh air than in the 230,000-acre Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands. One section of the grasslands is near Clayton and spreads east into Oklahoma and Texas. Another prominent one is about 80 mi west of Clayton, closer to Springer, south of U.S. 56. In the section near Clayton, if you look carefully, you can see ruts made by the wagons that crossed on the Old Santa Fe Trail. The land was drought-stricken during the Dust Bowl of the 1920s and '30s, when homesteaders abandoned their farms. After that, the government purchased the land and rehabilitated it to demonstrate that it could be returned to the tall grassland native to the region.

For an enjoyable loop drive through the grasslands, head east out of Clayton on U.S. 56; at NM 406 head north to just past Seneca, to where NM 406 makes a sharp turn to the east. Take the county gravel road west 3 mi and north 1 mi, noting the interpretive sign about the Santa Fe Trail. Continue a little farther north to the green gate that leads to the trail (following the limestone markers), where you can see ancient wagon ruts. Except for the occasional house or windmill, the view from the trail is not much different from what the pioneers saw.