On Highway 76 or the High Road to Taos (an official Scenic Byway), between Española and Picuris Pueblo in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of the Southern Rockies sits a small church in the village of Las Trampas. That small and beautiful church is known as San Jose de la Gracia. The town suffered quite a bit in its early years from Apache & Comanche raids, epidemics, and difficulty with crops but it survived and today it’s a beautiful stop along the pretty mountain roads near Santa Fe.

A sign outside of the beautiful church in the village of Las Trampas where the 1760 church was built reads: “The village of Las Trampas was established as a Spanish-American community in 1751 by 12 families from Santa Fe led by Juan de Arguello, recipient of a land grant from Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín. The Church of San José de la Gracia, built between 1760 and 1776, is a National Historic Landmark and the community's center where the agriculture cycle still is observed with religious ceremony and ritual. Parishioners periodically re-mud the adobe walls, which are as much as six feet thick. It is considered one of the best preserved examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in New Mexico.”