South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway
South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Colorado. Within Colorado it covers roughly 30 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway is Colorado's shortest scenic and historic byway, a 19-mile loop around Julesburg in the extreme northeastern corner of the state. The drive follows US Highway 385 south from Julesburg to the neighboring town of Ovid, then loops back north on US Highway 138, tracing the South Platte River as it heads toward the Nebraska border just a few miles downstream. The river valley here is quietly productive farm country, a strip of irrigated cropland squeezed between dry tablelands on either side, a landscape shaped as much by the river's water rights history as by the wagon trains and rail lines that once followed the same corridor. Designated in 1991 alongside the rest of Colorado's 26 scenic and historic byways, it can be driven start to finish in well under an hour, making it more of a short historical detour for travelers already passing through on Interstate 76 than a destination drive on its own. Its brevity is the point: a compact loop that packs 19th-century transportation history into one of Colorado's least-visited corners.
- Julesburg loop (US-385 / US-138)
- 19 miles
- shortest of Colorado's 26 byways
- South Platte River
- designated 1991
- irrigated farm country
Plan a drive on South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway
No campgrounds are listed close to South Platte River Trail Scenic Byway yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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