Palo Flechado Pass (Spanish: "tree pierced with arrows"),[1] also called Taos Pass and Old Taos Pass,[2][3] is a mountain pass located in Taos County, New Mexico, United States[4] on the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway.[5]
Palo Flechado Pass is 9,109 feet (2,776 m) in altitude.[6] It is located 3.5 miles west of Aqua Fria Creek[2]onU.S. Route 64 in the Carson National Forest.[7] A tributary of Agua Fria Creek, Palo Flechado Creek, is near the pass.[2]
Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache used the mountain pass on a trail from the plains to and then alongside the Cimarron River (also called La Flecha) before the arrival of the Spanish.[1][7] It continued to be used by Native Americans, Spaniards, and Europeans on journeys to Taos.[2]
According to the historic marker placed at the pass, a band of Apaches, the Flecha de Palo, lived in the plains east of the mountains in 1706.[1] A common theory for the name of the pass is based upon a Taos Pueblo tradition for shooting arrows into a tree at a mountain pass following a successful buffalo hunt.[2]
There are two hiking trails within a mile of the pass that go into the Palo Flechado Meadow and alongside a stream. The Elliot Barker Trail leads to a pond and then a dense spruce-fir forest. The La Jara Trail at Forest Road 5 parallels a stream in the Rio Grande valley.[8]
36°24′52.13″N 105°20′11.04″W / 36.4144806°N 105.3364000°W / 36.4144806; -105.3364000
