Samalayuca Dunes - The Samalayuca Dune Fields and The History of The Chihuahua Trail (El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro)

The Samalayuca Dune Fields and The History of The Chihuahua Trail (El Camino Real De Tierra Adentro)

The Samalayuca Dune fields lie directly across the main route of the Chihuahua Trail, part of the longer route known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, or the royal road of the interior. The portion of this route known as the Chihuahua Trail went north from Chihuahua City to Sante Fe, in New Mexico. From the time the Spanish colonial city of Sante Fe was founded in 1598 by the Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate there was steady and increasing freight and passenger traffic on this route.

The only major river on the trail was the Rio Grande. The trail crossed the river via a ford near the famous pass between the Juarez and Franklin mountain ranges. This ford and pass came to be known simply as "the Pass" (El Paso) or "The Pass of the North" (El Paso del Norte), and a town by the same name was first established south of the river, at the site of present day Ciudad Juarez. A separate community also known as El Paso del Norte, was later established on the north side of the river in 1849 after the Mexican-U.S. War on United States Territory. The original Mexican community of El Paso del Norte south of the river changed its name to Ciudad Juarez in 1865.

However, in the segment of the Chihuahua trail from Chihuahua City and El Paso del Norte, where the trail reached a point some 45 miles south of the Pass of the North, the trail encountered a 15 mile stretch of the Samalayuca dune fields. The wind shifted and renewed the deep and finely gained deep sand beds in these dunes. The soft shifting sands made walking through the dune fields tiring and time consuming for animals or people. Horses, oxen, mules and people could cross this sandy area only with great difficulty. The traditional two wheeled carts (carreteras) could become bogged down in the sands.