Santa Fe National Historic Trail|Travel

Santa Fe National Historic Trail (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma)

6/11/2007 Back on the road south through Hays and to Pawnee Rock [SHS], an outcropping on (and visible from) the Santa Fe Trail [NHT in KS]. Walked around and went on the roof of the pavilion for good views of the prairie. ... Fort Larned National Historic Site

The view as from the trail

The monument ...

... with inscription ..

... and trail image

The pavilion ...

with us on top

9/10/2008 Went into SF to the park-like [Santa Fe] Plaza [NHL] (start of the Old Spanish and also on the Santa Fe and El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro NHTs [NM]) ...

A nice panorama of the Plaza

Santa Fe Trail sign

10/4/2012 The whole stretch was along the Santa Fe Trail Scenic Byway. I stopped at two Santa Fe NHT [CO] sites. First was Sierra Vista, with nice views across the plains to the Rockies (considered a milestone along the route). The other was at Iron Spring which was an important water stop.

On the auto route

Sierra Vista sign

The NHT blaze

Wide-open area!

Auto route and Scenic Byway signs

Iron Spring sign

A trail sign

Some interpretive signage

Hard to see the ruts here

4/28/2017 Leaving Trinidad we got on the Santa Fe Trail NSB, and not long after heading south, we crossed into NM and immediately got off to see a small wayside exhibit and plaque on the Raton Pass NHL. This is a mountain pass along the Colorado/New Mexico border on the Santa Fe Trail (and on the Santa Fe NHT [NM]). Although I had already taken credit for this, knowing I had passed over years ago, this was more official with a photo. We left the SFT NSB after Raton, then rejoined it as we continued more south to the Wagon Mound NHL near the eponymous town. Wagon Mound is a butte that was a major landmark for pioneers along the Cimarron Cutoff of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and is a site on the Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe NHT. Although we had taken some photos from the Interstate, we drove down a local road for better views. Further south brought us to Watrous (La Junta) NHL District, which encompasses the historic junction point of the two major branches (Mountain and Cimarron Cutoff) of the Santa Fe Trail. After checking out an historic marker, we drove through the very small and sad-looking town which did have some surviving historic structures, also on the Santa Fe NHT. Ken had scoped out a stage station on private property for a representative photo, but we couldn't see any reasonable way of getting near it - oh well. Note: we have been back on the Santa Fe Trail from well north of Wagon Mound, and left it a little after here.

At the Pass

Beautiful mountain view

Signs about the trail

The inaccessible plaque

A close-up

Wagon Mound state sign ...

... and interpretive sign

NHT and Byway!

The Mound from near town

A better view from further away

Watrous state sign

Byway sign

Beautiful downtown Watrous

4/30/2017 Santa Fe NHT [NM]. We passed road signs and a plaque embedded in a wall, along with a stone “end of the trail” marker in the Santa Fe Plaza NHL. This is the center gathering place in town, echoing the traditional Spanish-American colonial cities.

NHT sign in town

Ken near ...

... a plaque

Santa Fe Plaza

End of the trail ...

... stone marker

6/4/2017 Onward west we stopped right outside of New Franklin in the Katy Trail State Park for some signage to take credit for the starting point of the Santa Fe Trail (NHT in MO), which we found. Across the street were some modern etchings on granite depicting people involved with the Trail, and in town we photoed a stone and plaque placed by the DAR in 1909. The Trail had actually started in Franklin, but that town had been washed away in floods and was reestablished a little inland. Across the Missouri in Boonville we went to Harley Park where I had researched some Trail info. At Lookout Point, with nice views across the river, were in fact signs for not only the Santa Fe NHT, but also a bonus L&C NHT!

Katy Trail State Park ...

... with Santa Fe Trail info

Ken pointing out ...

... the start and end of the trail

Trail history in art

New Franklin memorial

Trail info

Ken and me by the memorial

Park sign

That'a way ...

... to the SF and L&C trail info

Santa Fe trail info ...

... and map

The NHT logo

A nice panorama of the river and trail area

Ken and me at the overlook

National Historic Trails (Non-Units) - Santa Fe