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Puye Scenic Byway
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The only scenic byway entirely within an Indian Pueblo, the Puye route is rich with the history and culture of the Santa Clara people. It travels 14 miles on Indian Road 565, beginning just north of Española and passes through today’s Santa Clara Pueblo, established in 1580, before taking you even further centuries back in time. The Puye Cliffs were home to the ancestors of today’s Santa Clara people from about 900 A.D. to 1580. Now a National Historic Landmark, Puye features authentic cliff dwellings, other early Pueblo architecture, and from the mesa top, stunning panoramas of northern New Mexico. Early Western tourism entrepreneur Fred Harvey built one of his original Harvey Houses at the base of Black Mesa, and today it serves as the interpretive center and gift shop for the cliffs. Even simply driving through the majestic landscape, you will see many of the ancient dwellings carved into the volcanic tufa, rock formed by the compression or volcanic ash and cinders. After driving the byway, you’ll come away understanding why the Santa Clarans refer to this as a special place between earth and sky.
Puye Cliffs Welcome Center
At the base of sacred Black Mesa, the center offers tickets for tours of Puye, for the nearly vertical hillside, the mesa top, or both. Snacks and drinks available. Highway 30 and Puye Cliffs Road. www.puyecliffs.com
Phone: (505) 901-0681
