El Camino Real

Name of several historic routes in the USA, dating from the period of Spanish rule, but most particularly to the route in California that runs north from Baja California in Mexico to San Francisco Bay. Along this, from 1769 onwards, numerous Missions, Presidios and Pueblos were established. Today, the designation is applied mainly to the stretch north of Los Angeles, which passes through Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, and the Salinas Valley. Route 101 follows it.

Ther term El Camino Real is also applied to a number of other routes in the southern USA. It denoted the military road that ran for some 220 km/135 mi between New Madrid and St Louis, Missouri, and which was built by the Spanish in 1789. It was also used of a 16th-century trade route from Vera Cruz, on Mexico's Gulf Coast, to Santa Fe in New Mexico. Finally, the Spanish colonial road that extended for some 890 km/540 mi in eastern Texas, and was constructed in 1691 to provide communication between Mexico and missions to the north, was also known by this name.