Following the Santa Fe Trail

We left Albuquerque after getting our oil changed in the motorhome and generator. We also stopped at a CB Shop and they tried to fix our radio. Seems we might have a short in the antenna so thats one more thing on the list when we get to Forest City Iowa at the Winnebago factory. Even having all this done we still managed to get to Las Vegas (New Mexico that is).

We left there this morning headed up I-25 to get to Springer, NM and the Santa Fe Trail Museum. About an hour up the road we saw a sign for Fort Union Historical Monument. We decided to take a side trip and we are very glad we did. Seems that Fort Union was built to protect the trail travelers and was a major military supply depot. There were actually two different trails that split in Dodge City, Kansas. One was the Mountain Trail that was longer but safer that went into Colorado. The Cimmaron route was shorter but had very little water. Both of these trails met again at Fort Union. Once the railroad was finished and people stopped traveling the Santa Fe Trail, the fort was closed in 1891.













Can you imagine going across this land in a wagon?










Or over these mountains?














We did eventually get to Springer and found the Santa Fe Trail Museum. Unfortunately, we never made it inside. No one seemed to want to open it today. The sign read that they were closed from 12:00 to 1:00pm so we went into the motorhome to have lunch and study the maps. We waited until 1:15pm and finally got back on the road.
















Doesn't look like much but had it been open we would have wandered around. We decided to follow more of the mountain trail through Colorado into Kansas. There seems to be a bit more to see.