A Santa Fe Trail Drive Through Otero County's Plains Towns

The Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway runs 188 miles across southeast Colorado, and the stretch through Otero County packs a lot of history into a short, easy drive. It follows US-50 to La Junta, then bends southwest onto US-350, tracing a route that wagons rolled between the 1820s and 1870s.

Start at Bent’s Old Fort near La Junta on State Highway 194, a full-size rebuild of the 1840s adobe trading post where trappers, traders, and Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other Plains tribes once met. From there it is a short hop to the Sierra Vista overlook in the Comanche National Grassland, about 13 miles from town, where a bluff-top viewpoint and interpretive markers look out over the same prairie horizon early travelers watched for. A three-mile path follows the trail’s alignment west toward Timpas.

Back in La Junta, the Otero Museum keeps seven buildings, including the relocated Sciumbato House and grocery, listed on the National Register, near a downtown that grew up with the railroad.

Bent’s Fort follows a set schedule and the Otero Museum runs a summer season, so check hours before you go. Plan the route and stops through the byway’s official site at canyonsandplains.org/santafetrailbyway.