Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway
Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway is a National Scenic Byway in Colorado. Within Colorado it covers roughly 120 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
This byway crosses the Four Corners country of southwestern Colorado, linking some of the richest ancestral Puebloan archaeology in the United States. It connects Mesa Verde National Park, with its famous cliff dwellings, to the Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep, where stone towers stand at the heads of desert canyons. The surrounding landscape of mesas and dry washes has been farmed and inhabited for thousands of years.
- Mesa Verde cliff dwellings
- Canyons of the Ancients
- Hovenweep towers
- Four Corners region
- ancestral Puebloan sites
Plan a drive on Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway →
What is a National Scenic Byway?
National Scenic Byways are roads recognized at the federal level for at least one outstanding quality — scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational — that gives travelers a reason to seek them out rather than just pass through.