Blood on the Mountains
There are several possible explanations for the name of this range, which translates as "Blood of Christ," but the most commonly heard one although possibly apocryphal pertains to a Spanish priest who was thought to have been martyred during the Pueblo Revolt of the 17th century. The dying priest saw alpenglow on the high peaks above timberline at sunset, and exclaimed "Sangre de Cristo!" believing it was a miraculous sign of his impending temporal doom and eternal redemption. In today's secular world, you can still see the alpenglow from some locations, miracle or no miracle; good viewpoints for sunset viewing at a distance are across the valley near Los Alamos, while the intrepid backpacker who hikes the Winsor Trail trailhead near the Santa Fe Ski Basin to a campsite at Puerto Nambe can get a fine, up-close-and-personal look at the phenomenon on 12,600-foot Santa Fe Baldy.
Las Vegas, a town on Interstate 25 on the east side of the mountains and definitely not to be confused with the rip-roaring city of the same name in Nevada, has a downtown district with a large number of historic buildings dating to the days when it was a significant stop on the Santa Fe Railway. Several of these can be visited on a walking tour.
