Early Trails of Colorado
Across the diverse landscapes of Colorado, from its expansive prairies to its towering mountains, lie hidden histories beneath layers of asphalt. These paved surfaces often conceal the original pathways carved by the region’s indigenous peoples centuries ago. The story of Colorado’s early trails is a narrative of adaptation, exploration, and transformation, reflecting the changing needs and aspirations of those who traversed its terrain. This article explores the evolution of these paths, from ancient Native American routes to the railroads that ultimately reshaped the landscape.
Native Trails: Pre-history to 1850s
The legacy of the Ute Indians is deeply interwoven with the fabric of Colorado’s trail system. Consider one particular route, a testament to the enduring nature of indigenous pathways, it began as a simple footpath traced by the Ute nearly a thousand years ago. Originating in Estes Park, this trail crossed the formidable Continental Divide to reach Middle Park. Over time, European and American explorers, fur trappers, and settlers adopted this same route, recognizing its strategic importance. Eventually, it became known as the Ridge Road trail, a name that hinted at its elevated course. By the mid-1920s, the burgeoning federal and state bureaucracies, in their quest for order and efficiency, designated the auto road as US Highway 34, a classification that, while practical, seemed to strip away some of the romanticism associated with early travel.
The Ute influence extends beyond this single route. Portions of modern US 24, which winds its way through the Rockies west of Colorado Springs to present-day South Park, follow an ancient tribal path. Similarly, State Highway 114 traces the trail over the 10,032-foot Cochetopa Pass, a vital link across the mountains. US Highway 160, connecting the Rio Grande to the San Juan River, follows a route over the Continental Divide by Wolf Creek Pass, echoing the paths of indigenous travelers who came before. These highways stand as modern-day tributes to the ingenuity and intimate knowledge of the land possessed by the Ute people.
In 1540, the arrival of the first Europeans marked a turning point in Colorado’s history. Twenty-two members of a scouting party, under the command of General Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, ventured across southeastern Colorado in their relentless pursuit of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. For the next century and a half, the Spanish focused their efforts on consolidating control over their Pueblo Indian serfs, engaging in conflicts with other Native tribes, and limiting their exploration beyond Santa Fe, the capital of New Spain’s Province of New Mexico.
However, there were exceptions. In 1694, after suppressing a Pueblo Indian revolt, Governor Don Diego de Vargas led an expedition from Santa Fe, following a route that closely parallels today’s U.S. Highway 285. By 1706, a group of colonists established Colorado’s first European settlement, a trading post located approximately 100 miles south of Pueblo. Throughout the remainder of the 18th century, conquistadors and friars continued to utilize these routes through the San Luis Valley. Spanish trailblazers such as Juan de Ulibarri, Fathers Silvestre Escalante, Francisco Dominguez, and Don Juan Bautista de Anza left behind valuable early descriptions of Colorado’s geography, flora, and fauna.
Despite their road-building efforts in California and New Mexico, the Spanish found the land north of Santa Fe too challenging to control and maintain. The vast expanse of wilderness, its remoteness, and the perceived lack of readily exploitable resources discouraged extensive Spanish settlement.
Emigrant and Trade Routes
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 dramatically altered the geopolitical landscape of North America, bringing a vast territory, including most of eastern Colorado, under the control of the United States. During 1806-07, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and his men undertook an expedition across much of southern Colorado, establishing Pike’s Stockade at the Conejos River in the San Luis Valley. Despite their efforts, they were apprehended by Spanish authorities before being released.
In 1820, President James Monroe dispatched Major Stephen H. Long to explore the southwestern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. Long’s party, traveling along the South Platte River, famously dismissed the high plains as the "Great American Desert," a characterization that would persist in the minds of many Americans for decades. Undeterred by Long’s assessment, a small number of independent individuals, seeking their fortune through trapping beaver and trading with Native tribes, ventured into the region.
Over the next two decades, these intrepid travelers forged two important paths into Colorado. The first, the Smoky Hill Trail, stretched from Leavenworth, Kansas, through Cheyenne Wells, Hugo, Limon, Bennett, and ultimately to Denver. The second, the Overland Trail, originated along the South Platte River, beginning at present-day Julesburg, extending to Greeley, and then following the Cache La Poudre River to LaPorte.
The era of the mountain man came to an abrupt end in the late 1850s with the arrival of the first gold-seekers. These hopeful prospectors, their wagons emblazoned with the slogan "Pike’s Peak or Bust," braved the perils of raiding parties, harsh weather, starvation, and drought in their quest for fortune. In 1860 alone, nearly 70,000 individuals undertook this arduous journey, following routes initially established by the trappers.
Santa Fe Trail
Perhaps the most significant of the early trails, the Santa Fe Trail served as the primary link between St. Louis, Missouri, and the Spanish-Mexican outpost of Santa Fe in the 1820s. In the late summer of 1821, William Becknell led a trading party from the banks of the Missouri River through southern Colorado to Santa Fe. By November of that year, he had reached his destination, establishing a caravan trade that would endure for over 40 years.
By the 1830s, the northern, or Mountain Branch, of the Santa Fe Trail provided the first route into Colorado from the east. This trail connected New Mexico, via Raton Pass, to the markets of the Missouri Valley and the trading posts along the Arkansas River. In 1821, American pack and wagon trains began traversing the Santa Fe Trail in southeastern Colorado, following a route later utilized by US 50 and 350.
Between 1829 and 1834, William Bent established his Fort on the Arkansas River, adding a new chapter to the history of the Santa Fe Trail. By the early 1830s, Becknell’s original route had fallen into disuse due to the threat posed by Kiowa and Comanche tribesmen on the warpath. The route via Bent’s Fort, though nearly 100 miles longer, offered greater safety from Indian attacks. Furthermore, its proximity to the Arkansas River, Timpas Creek, and the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains reduced the risk of livestock succumbing to thirst.
As with other trails, the advent of the railroad gradually rendered the Santa Fe Trail obsolete. By 1880, the first train had arrived in Santa Fe, and with the subsequent rise of the automobile, the route of the old trail became better known as US 50 and 350.
Cherokee Trail
While as heavily traveled as the Santa Fe Trail, the Cherokee Trail has received less historical recognition. The Cherokee Trail began on the Arkansas River near the present-day Arkansas-Oklahoma border. French explorers of the mid-18th century were among the first Europeans to follow this route through Colorado. The Cherokee Trail branched off the Santa Fe Trail at La Junta. From there, it continued up the Arkansas River, followed Fountain Creek to Colorado City, and then proceeded through Denver to Virginia Dale near the Wyoming border. Ultimately, the Cherokee Trail extended to the goldfields near Sacramento, California.
Today, U.S. Highway 50 follows the Cherokee Trail from the Kansas border to the east side of Fountain Creek from Pueblo to the town of Fountain. A subsequent stage road ran up the west side of Fountain Creek to Colorado City before the establishment of Colorado Springs. With the rise of the automobile, the original alignment of US Highway 85 (now Interstate 25) followed the path of the Cherokee stage route through this portion of southern Colorado.
Smoky Hill Trail
The Smoky Hill Trail had three branches in Colorado: North, Middle, and South. In 1859, gold seekers followed the Middle Smoky along the Smoky Hill River from Kansas to Old Cheyenne Wells (north of the current town of Cheyenne Wells) in Colorado. Despite being the most direct route to the gold camps, the Smoky Hill Trail earned the grim moniker "The Starvation Trail." During its peak use in the 1860s, the Middle Smoky stretched over ten miles wide, its width varying depending on local conditions. The trail conformed to the surrounding terrain, tracing ridges in lower areas while avoiding the extensive sandhills. Exposed to the elements, the Smoky Hill Trail claimed more lives due to hunger and thirst than Indian attacks.
Three modern highways trace the path of the Smoky Hill Trail through Colorado: US 40 from the Kansas border to Limon, State Highway 86 west to Elizabeth, and State Highway 83 from Parker to Denver.
Overland Trail
The Overland Trail, along with a branch of the Oregon Trail from the Lower California Crossing at Brule, Nebraska, ascended the south bank of the South Platte River before entering northeastern Colorado. The Overland and Oregon Trails diverged at the Upper California Crossing near Ovid, Colorado. The Overland Trail continued along the south side of the river to Denver, while the Oregon Trail crossed the South Platte River and re-entered Nebraska across the northern border of Colorado. The original Overland Trail followed the course of today’s US 138 to US 6 in northeastern Colorado.
From the late 1850s to the mid-1860s, wagons and stages utilized a bypass of the Overland Trail known as the Fort Morgan Cutoff. This cutoff, following a diagonal line from Fort Morgan to Denver, shortened the journey by 40 miles. Modern US 6 lies approximately 40 miles west of the Fort Morgan Cutoff, an area of heavy sand that stage and freight wagons could not have traversed in the mid-19th century.
After crossing the Fort Morgan Cutoff, the Overland Stage headed towards Denver. The stage then turned north along the west bank of the South Platte River to Longmont and Loveland, following the alignment of today’s Interstate 25. Beyond Loveland, the stage traveled west of Fort Collins to LaPorte on the Wyoming state line, a route now followed by US Highway 287.
Trapper’s Trail
Some trails, like the Trapper’s Trail, also known as the Taos Trail, have faded into obscurity, remembered primarily by their highway designations. The Trapper’s Trail connected Taos, New Mexico, to Fort Garland in the San Luis Valley, following the path of today’s State Highway 159. At the Huerfano River, the Trapper’s Trail split, with one branch following the river to Fort Reynolds and the other heading towards Pueblo. By 1860, an ancient trail, believed to be the first used by white settlers in Denver, became part of the Trapper’s Trail. This section closely paralleled modern Kalamath Street, entering Denver near the location of 11th Street.
The Native American and mountain man trails formed the foundation for many of the routes that Coloradans still use today. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States Military explored new pathways in and around Colorado, providing detailed information on existing routes that continue to be utilized.
Military Roads and Surveys
President Thomas Jefferson’s desire to learn more about the northern plains led to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Around the same time that Lewis and Clark returned east, Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike ventured into the central Rockies to study the portion of the Louisiana Purchase. In mid-November 1806, Pike and his men discovered the peak that would later bear his name and reached the headwaters of the Arkansas River near present-day Leadville. In 1820, a party led by Major Stephen H. Long pushed further into the unexplored territory, returning with tales of Colorado as a great desert. In subsequent decades, Lieutenant John C. Fremont and Captain John Gunnison led other military expeditions to provide the American people with more detailed information about the distant Rocky Mountains. However, their reports did little to stimulate mass migration to the region.
As stipulated in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which marked the end of the war with Mexico, the Rockies of New Mexico and Colorado became the property of the United States. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, under the command of Captain Howard Stansbury, conducted surveys of supply routes across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Officers serving under Stansbury, including John C. Fremont, John Gunnison, and Edward G. Beckwith, documented their observations and experiences as they traversed the mountains. After exploring some of the highest points of the Continental Divide, Gunnison and several of his men were killed by a band of Paiute Indians along Utah’s Sevier River. Gunnison’s name continues to resonate across the area that he and his men first surveyed.
The Congressional passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 provided the region with its first taste of federal funding for road construction. The Act is best remembered for formally organizing the two territories and clearing Indian land titles. It also placed the land that would later become Colorado under the jurisdiction of Kansas Territory. The following year, the federal government sought to construct and improve existing trails in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. In 1855, Congress authorized a $50,000 appropriation for improvements to the road between Fort Riley, Kansas, and Bent’s Fort in Colorado. Soldiers conducted surveys and escorted civilian construction parties on this military road but did not undertake any clearing or building themselves.
Despite the looming Civil War, the federal government maintained its interest in identifying paths and wagon routes across the Rocky Mountains. In 1861, Captain E. L. Berthoud and his guide, Jim Bridger, surveyed the Rockies in search of a route to the Utah Territory. Beginning at the headwaters of Clear Creek west of Denver and traveling north, Berthoud’s party discovered a pass through the Rocky Mountains in May of that year. By September, Berthoud’s report to the U.S. Army detailed a 413.25-mile route from Clear Creek to Salt Lake City. However, it would take another 13 years before the first stagecoach successfully navigated the 11,315-foot high pass named in Berthoud’s honor.
Another military route that played a significant role in Colorado highway history cut across remote northeastern Colorado. The U.S. Army constructed the Government Road (now known as State Highway 13) between 1880 and 1884 to protect settlers in the wake of the Meeker Massacre of 1879. The original Government Road ran from Ft. Steele in Wyoming to the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado.
Mining-Related Roads
The gold rush of the late 1850s brought stage lines to the mountain mining camps. In the spring of 1859, the Leavenworth and Pikes Pike Express began transporting passengers, mail, and freight from Leavenworth, Kansas, westward across the prairie to the north banks of Cherry Creek. The new route required stage company employees and passengers to pitch in and perform necessary roadwork. Horace Greeley, a passenger from New York, reportedly wielded a pick and shovel to help clear the road. The Leavenworth and Pikes Peak line, laid out by B.D. Williams, who later became Colorado’s first territorial delegate to Congress, follows the general route of today’s U.S. 36. In 1864, the Butterfield Overland Dispatch transported its first freight and passengers along the Smoky Hill route. By late 1866, Wells Fargo had acquired the smaller operators, establishing a monopoly over all transcontinental stage lines in Denver.
During the 1860s, the stagecoach network expanded beyond the eastern plains and Denver to serve the most isolated mining communities in and along the Rockies. The miners themselves carved roads out of the mountains by hand. The grades on some of these crude mountain roads were so steep that drivers had to drag large logs to control the vehicles during particularly precarious descents.
The speed and comfort of the railroad ultimately brought an end to the stagecoach era across much of the West. Nevertheless, the stage remained the primary mode of transportation throughout Colorado’s mountainous and sparsely populated areas. In the mining towns of the Rockies, stage lines operated by speculators Billy McClelland and Bob Spottswood ran from Denver to Morrison along the route of today’s US 285, through Turkey Creek Canyon to Fairplay. In 1873, McClelland and Spottswood expanded their passenger and express coach service over the Continental Divide via what is now US 50 to Salida, and then northward via modern US 24 from Granite to the town of Oro. The partnership later established another line between Colorado Springs and South Park, following US 24. John Evans, who served as Colorado’s second territorial governor, built another important toll road from Morrison along Bear Creek to the mining camps of Idaho Springs, Silver Plume, Georgetown, Central City, and Blackhawk in 1873. This road generally follows the alignment of modern State Highway 74.
Obscured by the rise of locomotive steam, stagecoaches slowly disappeared from the scene. However, in Colorado’s most remote locations, they continued to serve isolated farmers and miners well into the 20th century. As late as 1918, a stage line between Rifle and Meeker competed with the occasional automobile owner along the Government Road, now known as State Highway 13.
Railroads and the End of the Wagon Trail
During the 1950s, Colorado campaigned and waited anxiously for the federal government to extend the national interstate highway system beyond Denver. This was not the first time that the state had lobbied and worried about its transportation future. Nearly a century earlier, in the late 1860s, Colorado engaged in a fierce economic rivalry with its neighbor to the north, Wyoming, over which state would benefit from the first railroad line in the Rocky Mountain West. The Rocky Mountains presented a double-edged sword for the state’s promoters, attracting miners and tourists but posing challenges for road and rail construction.
In the spring of 1869, the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, placed Colorado at a critical juncture. The Union Pacific Railroad’s construction of a transcontinental line over the gentle grade of Sherman Hill in Wyoming caused panic in Colorado. Territorial residents understood that the railroad was essential for Colorado’s survival. A line from the Union Pacific station in Cheyenne to northern Colorado would allow the rail company to control traffic between the mining camps and eastern markets. By June 1870, Union Pacific had built the first rail line connecting Denver to Cheyenne.
Panic turned to action as connections with Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, were established later that year through the completion of the Kansas Pacific system. The arrival of the railroad in Denver provided the impetus for the city to become the urban center of the Rocky Mountain West. Reflecting the transformative impact of the railroad, Denver’s population increased by 700% to nearly 36,000 residents during the 1870s.
Silver surpassed gold in importance during the 1870s and 1880s as mining camps in the mountains and southwest of Denver experienced a boom. General William J. Palmer led the construction of the Denver & Rio Grande system to create a north-south rail artery along the Front Range. The Denver & Rio Grande was the first rail company to lay narrow gauge lines along the cliffs to reach the silver camps high in the mountains. Measuring three feet across, the narrow gauge line had to "curve on the brim of a sombrero" along the canyons to reach the inaccessible mining camps.
By the early 1880s, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and the Union Pacific rail lines linked the state’s agricultural northeast and southeast portions to the South Platte Valley and Denver. This construction laid the foundation for the state’s agricultural industry, particularly the dry-land production of sugar beets and winter wheat.
The narrow-gauge lines also left a legacy for the automobile. As the silver boom waned in the 1890s and the production of other metals declined, many small railroads abandoned their lines. Following World War I, the state and private speculators removed miles of track and transformed these routes into state highways or jeep roads across the Continental Divide and on the Western Slope.
Many rail alignments served as state highways from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s, prompting State Highway Engineer Charles Vail to add 4,400 miles to Colorado’s highway system. Some roads, including a route between Colorado Springs to Victor and an abandoned portion of US 50 west of Mack to the Colorado-Utah border, serve as county roads. Portions of old, narrow-gauge lines still in use as state highways include State Highway 67, south of Divide; Colorado 82 between Basalt and Aspen; and State Highway 103 from Clear Creek to Georgetown.
Commerce and technology brought people to Colorado, but it took organization and regulation to respond to westward changes. These forces gradually converged as the 19th century progressed. These early trails of Colorado are still felt today. Early trails of Colorado are an important part of the state’s history. Early trails of Colorado are still in use today in the form of highways. Early trails of Colorado were often originally created by Native Americans. Early trails of Colorado were used for trade, military purposes, and to find gold.
(By the Colorado Department of Transportation, updated January 2025)