We left Santa Fe and headed back east on the Santa Fe Trail. Taking I-25 down around the mountains again, we came to where the turnoff was for Fort Union and we drove up there, stopping for photos of the Mountain Branch ruts and swales. When we arrived at Ft. Union, the actual park was closed due to fires in the area.
On the return to I-25,
we took as many photos
as we could, including
pronghorn antelope and a snake.
Next we headed north to exit in Springer, where or first route came through and headed west instead of east so that we catch the Santa Fe Trail in the north direction toward Rayado and Cimarron. We did not even get a half mile before the sign in the road said “open for local traffic only” (fires). So we headed back to I-25 and headed north.
We checked the map and it said can get off I-25 on 58 and head straight west to Cimarron so we thought we’d give that a try. We did get to see Cimarron and do a drive thru of historic structures. A sign there said that Rayado was evacuated, which correlates to our earlier inability to get through there.
We headed back northeast on 64 along the northern “safer” route. Our next stop was Bent’s Fort National Historic Park. We arrived at the moment there were closing. Looking at our timing, we decided to stay the night in La Junta and explore the fort in the morning.