Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail starts in New Franklin (pictured above) and ends in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was used to transport goods from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe. The trail was also used to transport military freight to the many forts in the Southwest. Once the railway made it to New Mexico the existence of the Santa Fe trail ended.

We picked the Santa Fe Junior Ranger booklet up at Fort Union National Historic site but we visited all of the sites along the trail. Here they are with links to the posts about our visits.

Fort Larned National Historic Site

Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site

Capulin Volcano National Monument

Fort Union National Monument

Pecos National Historic Park

Also if you are planning to travel the trail or part of the trail I highly recommend doing and following the Junior Wagon Master Program, there is a book to follow and you will earn a certificate and some really cool patches to go with.

The Junior Wagon Master Program can be found following the link below

Junior Wagon Master Program

If interested in the program above follow our family through the book on the following blog posts:

Eastern Terminus of the Santa Fe Trail

Central Route of the Santa Fe Trail

Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail

Western Terminus of the Santa Fe Trail

Here is what you earn completing the Junior Wagon Master Booklet

Stopping at the above National historical sites and doing some general trail activities plus each park listed above activity will get you a Santa Fe Junior Ranger.

Not interested in Junior Rangers or Junior Wagon Master. Just stop in at any Santa Fe Trail National Park Service Site and grab a brochure. It comes with a map of the trail and you can just head out. All along the trail are highway wayside markers to stop at and find more information about each site on your way along the trail..

There are also cancellations at every NPS stop along the way as well, start collecting those, they add up.

That concludes our trip along the trail, we have done Santa Fe Trail, California, Oregon, and some of the Mormon Trail. We really enjoyed the Santa Fe Trail and we hope you do too.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Trails!!