Santa Fe Trail - New Mexico
Santa Fe Trail - New Mexico is a National Scenic Byway in New Mexico. Within New Mexico it covers roughly 380 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Santa Fe Trail - New Mexico with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
New Mexico's stretch of the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway follows two branches of the route William Becknell pioneered from Missouri in 1821. The Mountain Branch crossed the punishing Raton Pass, where Richens Wootton ran a toll road starting in 1865, charging $1.50 per wagon; the Cimarron Cutoff, which carried an estimated three-quarters of all trail traffic, entered New Mexico from the Oklahoma panhandle near Clayton, passing landmarks like McNee's Crossing and Point of Rocks. The two branches met at Watrous before continuing to Fort Union, the first of three forts built here starting in 1851 to protect trail travelers and supply other New Mexico garrisons. Springer, six miles from the trail's Canadian River crossing, now houses the Santa Fe Trail Museum in the 1882 Colfax County Courthouse. The full byway also runs through Kansas and southeastern Colorado, but its New Mexico stretch carries some of the trail's hardest terrain and best-preserved historic sites.
- Raton Pass
- Fort Union
- Cimarron Cutoff
- Mountain Branch
- 1821 Santa Fe Trail founding
- Santa Fe Trail Museum
- Watrous junction
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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.