Colorado Scenic and Historic Byways - 2024/2025

Distance: 184 miles • Allow 4 hours
Total elevation gain: 3,397–7,800 feet

Following roughly the same route as the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, this byway shows the lasting effects the trail had on settling this part of the West. At Boggsville, visitors can tour a series of restored historical structures that comprised an agrarian community from the mid-1800s. Just beyond Las Animas is Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, where a massive adobe fort once served as a center of commerce, a meeting place and shelter from attacks and inclement weather. The atmosphere of the old trading post has been meticulously re-created so that visitors can gain a better understanding of life along the Santa Fe Trail. Beyond La Junta, the byway veers southwest through the Comanche National Grassland, an area full of plains wildlife including coyotes and countless red-tailed hawks. At Trinidad, the byway reaches History Colorado’s Santa Fe Trail Museum. The adjacent Baca House and Bloom Mansion offer a counterpoint by chronicling the life of two prominent Trinidad families who lived here during the late 19th century. In the center of town, the El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District preserves a collection of historical buildings and brick streets that served as southern Colorado’s financial and cultural hub in the days of the Old West. The byway presses on south over Raton Pass, which is a National Historic Landmark.