Rural Route 2, New Mexico

Current maps of Grants, New Mexico show no indication that such a road exists. It is possible that road names have changed since the time Hillerman wrote People of Darkness in the late 1970s. It is also possible that he invented this particular route in the process of writing his fictional novel. Rural Route 2 could also refer to County Road 42, located south of Grants and east of Ramah, running east-west through a southern portion of the El Malpais National Monument and conservation areas, where remnants of historical homesteads have been identified.