---
template: byway.jade
id: "2113"
name: Pawnee Pioneer Trails
distance: "125"
duration: 3 hours
description: "This byway retraces old Native American and pioneer trails on the wide, open plains. Along the way is the sudden upward jut of the striking Pawnee Buttes, rising 250 feet above the prairie."
contact: "**Greely US Forest Service Ranger Station**  \r\n 970-346-5000  \r\n 970-346-5015 TDD  \r\n\r\n"
path: 
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websites: 
  - url: "http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/arp/home"
    name: "Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland"
  - url: "http://www.coloradodot.info/travel/scenic-byways/northeast/pawnee-pioneer-trails"
    name: Pawnee Pioneer Trails
designations: 
  - Colorado State Scenic Byway
states: 
  - CO
ll: 
  - -104.73191099959291
  - 40.58240100040581
bounds: 
  - - -104.73191099959291
    - 40.253990000238275
  - - -103.20844999986758
    - 40.87424100032189

---

This is the kind of scenic route the high plains are known for -
open and endless. The land reveals itself in increments on this
seemingly infinite expanse of shortgrass prairie; a new horizon
appears at the tip of every swale. The tranquil confluence of earth
and sky is disturbed only by the distant silhouette of the Rocky
Mountains and the sudden upward jut of the Pawnee Buttes. These
250-foot-high knobs, visible for miles around, guided Indian and
pioneer travelers over the years; today they provide refuge for
coyote, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and hundreds of bird
species. The surrounding region, first settled by 19th-century
homesteaders, remains prime agricultural land, punctuated by tidy
rural towns and modern-day homes on the range.
