The Santa Fe Trail: Raton to Santa Fe

The Route at a Glance

The Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail came down off Raton Pass into New Mexico at Raton. It was the longer of the trail's two routes from Missouri and the slower one for wagons, but it had more water and kept away from the Comanche plains crossed by the Cimarron Route. This drive follows it south and west to the trail's end, about 220 miles. Capulin Volcano, thirty miles east of Raton, makes a side trip before setting out.

From Raton, US-64 runs southwest across the grassland to Cimarron, headquarters town of the Maxwell Land Grant, where Henri Lambert's St. James Hotel still stands on the trail. NM-58 continues to I-25 at Springer, and the interstate follows the old route south to Watrous. There the two branches of the trail came together, and a few miles up NM-161 the adobe ruins of Fort Union stand beside the ruts of both.

Las Vegas grew up on the trail around its plaza, where Stephen Watts Kearny claimed New Mexico for the United States in 1846, and a few miles northwest in the canyon of the Gallinas stands the railroad's Montezuma Castle, built after the trains had replaced the wagons. From Las Vegas the route follows I-25 southwest and then old NM-63 and NM-50, the first alignment of Route 66, through Pecos, past the mission ruins at Pecos National Historical Park and over Glorieta Pass.

The road ends where the wagons did, on the plaza in Santa Fe before the Palace of the Governors. The trail carried trade from 1821 until the railroad reached Las Vegas in 1879 and Santa Fe the next year. Raton Pass and Glorieta Pass can see snow in winter, but the route is open all year.

The Drive, Stop by Stop

5 stops along the route, in driving order from Raton, New Mexico to Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of them sits off the road itself — the distance is noted on each.

1. 1

   St. James Hotel

   Cimarron

   In Cimarron, on US-64.

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2. 2

   Fort Union National Monument

   Watrous

   Up NM-161 from I-25 at Watrous.

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3. 3

   Montezuma Castle

   Las Vegas

   4.6 miles off the route

   A few miles northwest of the Las Vegas plaza on NM-65.

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4. 4

   Pecos National Historical Park

   Pecos

   On NM-63 south of the village of Pecos.

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5. 5

   Palace of the Governors

   Santa Fe

   The end, on the Santa Fe plaza.

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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let The Santa Fe Trail: Raton to Santa Fe do what it does best.