Driving this National Scenic Byway with your stereo playing and the air conditioner keeping things cool, you may wonder what travelers on the Old Santa Fe Trail endured on their passage through the plains. Only the strong survived, and those who did forged an indelible chapter on America’s history.
- Begin your tour in Trinidad, a small city with a quaint Victorian downtown. Stop by the historic Baca House, a grand adobe house that Felipe and Dolores Baca acquired for 22,000 pounds of wool in 1873.
- As you head northeast on US 350 through the Comanche National Grassland, look closely and you’ll see this area is full of life. Falcons and hawks search for prey, songbirds flit from the grasses and antelope graze in the meadows. In late summer, the roadside is inundated with sunflowers.
- For a worthy detour, hop off the byway for a minute in La Junta and follow the signs to Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. Founded in 1833 by brothers William and Charles Bent and their partner, Ceran St. Vrain, this reconstructed fort was a trading post strategically located between fur trappers in the Rockies, traders on their way to Santa Fe, and Cheyenne, Arapaho and Kiowa Indians who hunted in the area.
- Back on the byway (now US 50 heading east), you’ll pass through the town of Las Animas and by John Martin Reservoir, the second-largest body of water in the state. Two rare birds—the piping plover and the interior least tern—can be spotted along the shores of this lake in summer. Camping and picnic grounds are available in the state park.
- The byway loosely follows the Arkansas River—let it lead you all the way to the town of Lamar and eventually to Kansas-Colorado border, where it ends.
Distance: 188 miles
Suggested time: Allow 4–5 hours
Scenic & Historic Byways Overview
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