On the Santa Fe Trail: Trinidad to Santa Fe

Route description

The Santa Fe Trail carried wagons between Missouri and Santa Fe from 1821. Its mountain branch passed through Trinidad, a brick town with museums of the trail and ranching era. I-25 follows the old route over Raton Pass into New Mexico.

From Raton, detour east on US-64/87 to Capulin Volcano, where a road spirals to the rim of a cinder cone and a trail loops around the crater. Then head west to Cimarron, an Old West town with a historic hotel and access to the Cimarron Canyon.

South of Cimarron, roads lead back to I-25 and Fort Union National Monument, the adobe ruins of the largest fort on the trail, where wagon ruts are still visible. Las Vegas, New Mexico, has a leafy plaza and hundreds of historic buildings.

I-25 then crosses Glorieta Pass. Stop at Pecos National Historical Park to walk among the ruins of a pueblo and mission church before reaching the end of the trail at the plaza in Santa Fe. Spring and fall are pleasant; summer brings afternoon thunderstorms.