The Old Spanish Trail passed through the Grand Valley

Long before highways, a famous trade route threaded through western Colorado, and one of its branches reached the Grand Valley.

The Old Spanish Trail linked Santa Fe, New Mexico, with Los Angeles, California, in the 1800s. Traders moved goods, and at times people, along a hard network of routes through the mountains and deserts. The trail’s northern branch ran west across Colorado toward the Grand Junction area before continuing on toward Utah. Today the route is recognized as the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, managed jointly by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Why care: it is a reminder that the Grand Valley sat on a corridor of movement long before the railroad or the town company arrived. Modern roads in the region sometimes run near the old path. The history also connects local stories to a much larger Southwestern past.

You can learn more locally at the Museum of the West in Grand Junction. For the documented trail route and its history, see the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management official pages.