This forgotten Colorado byway has sandstone towers, open sky, and almost no traffic

The byway most Colorado visitors never find

Everyone heads for the mountains when they think of Colorado. That’s exactly why this drive catches people off guard.

The Pawnee Pioneer Trails Scenic and Historic Byway loops 128 miles through the high plains of northeast Colorado, crossing open shortgrass prairie, climbing past ancient sandstone towers, and rolling through small towns that railroad workers and homesteaders built from nothing.

It runs through Logan, Morgan, and Weld counties, and parts of the route follow gravel roads so quiet you might not see another car for an hour.

The old trails this byway was named to honor

Long before any road crews showed up, this prairie belonged to the Arapaho, Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Kiowa, who hunted the bison herds that once blackened the plains in every direction.

Fur trappers and traders followed in the 1820s, and later came the homesteaders and ranchers who platted out small railroad towns along the way.

Colorado’s Department of Transportation officially designated the byway in 1992, naming it after the historic trails that once cut across this corner of the state.

The towns those settlers founded, Ault, Briggsdale, Grover, Raymer, Fort Morgan, and Sterling, still stand along the route.

193,000 acres of grassland the Great Plains almost lost

At the center of the loop sits the Pawnee National Grassland, about 193,060 acres of open shortgrass prairie that the U.S. Forest Service established in 1960.

It spreads across a 30-by-60-mile stretch of the northeast corner of the state, and it is one of the last large pieces of shortgrass prairie left on the Great Plains.

You can move through it by car, on foot, by bike, or on horseback.

The scale of it takes a minute to register when you first pull off the highway and step out onto the grass.

Why the prairie is dry but still full of things living in it

The Rocky Mountains catch most of the rain that moves east across Colorado, and the plains on the other side stay dry because of it. But dry is not the same as empty.

More than 400 plant species grow across the grassland, from prickly-pear cactus to cottonwood trees, and in spring, wildflowers push up through the short grass in colors you don’t expect from a landscape this flat.

The views here run for miles with nothing to stop them, and on a clear day, you can see the foothills rising in the distance to the west.

Two sandstone towers rise 300 feet above the flat prairie

The Pawnee Buttes are the kind of thing you don’t expect to find on a flat plain.

Two sandstone towers stand about 300 feet above the surrounding grassland, left standing after the softer rock around them slowly wore away over thousands of years.

The lower section is a soft, clay-rich formation called the Brule, and a harder cap of Arikaree sandstone sits on top, protecting the towers from wearing down faster.

They sit about 13 miles south of the Wyoming state line, visible from miles away, rising out of the plain like something dropped there from somewhere else.

Four miles of easy trail to the base of the buttes

The Pawnee Buttes Trail runs about four miles round trip and doesn’t demand much from your legs. The path leads down an escarpment and out across the open grassland toward the base of the towers.

You can walk up close to the west butte, which sits on public land, but the east butte stands on private property. Don’t try to climb them either way because the crumbling sandstone makes it dangerous.

One thing to know before you go: a section near the buttes closes from March 1 through June 30 every year to protect nesting birds of prey.

Over 300 bird species and a self-guided tour to find them

Birders fly in from around the world to walk this grassland, and the numbers back them up: more than 300 bird species have been recorded here.

Prairie species that are nearly impossible to spot anywhere else turn up regularly, including the mountain plover, the burrowing owl, and various longspurs. The lark bunting, Colorado’s state bird, lives here too.

A 21-mile self-guided birding tour winds past the key viewing spots, so you don’t have to guess where to stop. If you’ve never done a birding drive before, this is a good place to start one.

Pronghorn, prairie dogs, and what else roams the open plains

The grassland moves with life if you slow down and look.

Pronghorn run the open plains here, and they are the fastest land animal in North America, built to cover distance in a way that looks almost effortless from a distance.

Black-tailed prairie dog towns pop up across the grassland, and you’ll see coyotes, mule deer, and jackrabbits without much effort. Golden eagles and prairie falcons work the air overhead, hunting.

One thing to stay aware of on the trails: rattlesnakes live here, so stick to the marked paths and watch where you step.

Crow Valley’s cottonwood shade and some of the darkest skies around

On a treeless prairie, the Crow Valley Recreation Area stands out.

Cottonwood and elm trees give it shade you won’t find anywhere else on the open plains, and that shade pulls in migrating songbirds during spring and fall, which makes it a favorite stop for birders doing the loop.

Picnic tables and a ball field give you room to spread out and take a break from the drive. Come back after dark and the sky turns into something else entirely.

The remoteness that makes daytime feel lonely turns into a serious advantage when the stars come out.

Grover’s 1887 depot and the railroad history behind it

The small town of Grover sits along the byway near the grassland, and its most interesting stop is the Grover Depot Museum, built in 1887 by the Burlington Railroad.

The two-story wooden structure tells the story of a town that boomed when the tracks came through and settled into something quieter when the economy shifted. Artifacts and railroad history fill the displays inside.

Step back out and the view from Grover is all grassland rolling away in every direction, the kind of see-forever landscape that would have looked exactly like this to the settlers who first pulled in by rail.

Sterling’s dead cottonwoods carved into something worth stopping for

Sterling is the largest town on the loop, and it goes by “City of Living Trees” for a reason.

Artist Bradford Rhea took dead cottonwood trunks around town and carved them into works of art that still stand along the streets. A self-guided tour leads you past many of them.

The Overland Trail Museum, built in 1936, holds the town’s pioneer history and gives you context for everything you’ve been driving through.

Sterling is a good place to fuel up, grab a meal, and get your bearings before continuing the rest of the loop.

Fort Morgan’s 1,100-foot bridge still stands after a century of use

Fort Morgan sits on the old Overland Trail, the gold-rush route that saw heavy wagon traffic from about 1862 to 1869.

The town’s most striking landmark is the Rainbow Arch Bridge, which spans the South Platte River just north of downtown. Workers built it in 1922 and 1923, and it runs about 1,100 feet across 11 concrete arches.

There is no other bridge like it in Colorado, and the National Register of Historic Places recognized it years ago.

Today it functions as a walking path, which means you can walk the full length of it and look down at the river.

Drive the Pawnee Pioneer Trails Scenic Byway in Colorado

The Pawnee Pioneer Trails Scenic and Historic Byway begins and ends near Ault, Colorado, with the loop running through the towns of Briggsdale, Grover, Raymer, Fort Morgan, and Sterling.

Spring and fall are the best times to drive it, when temperatures are mild and wildflowers may be up.

Gas stations and services are few and far between, so fill your tank before you leave and bring more water than you think you’ll need. Some roads on the route are gravel and can get rough after rain or snow.

Check road conditions before you head out.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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