Plan Like A Park Ranger: Visiting Bent's Old Fort

A park ranger greets visitors at entrance while children and adults explore and play games inside the fort plaza. NPS Photo

Top 10 Tips

These insider tips will help you plan for the best visitor experience at Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. Click the drop-down menu for more information.

Come Prepared

When visiting any of our sites remember to wear good walking shoes, dress for the weather, and bring a water bottle. Check out the National Park Service trip planning guide for more information.

Pets In The Park

Leashed pets are welcome in most of the park but are limited to the plaza inside the Fort. Additionally, pets should not be left unattended. Summer heat poses a threat to pets left in vehicles.

Get Your Trade Goods At The Park Store

Complete your visit by checking out the Western National Parks Association Park Store located in the Information Center. The Park Store at Bent's Old Fort offers many of the same trade goods that were exchanged for bison robes and other peltries at the fort in 1846. A visit to the store links you to the past when Bent's Fort was part of a thriving commercial trading empire. In addition to other souvenirs, you can purchase replicas of the same goods offered by the Bent brothers and carried along the Santa Fe Trail.

Get Started at the Information Center

The information center is located at the visitor parking area, immediately next to the restrooms and orientation shelter. It provides orientation materials and has a Western National Park Store.

Approaching the Fort Requires a Walk

From the parking lot to the reconstructed fort entrance is a one-quarter mile paved pathway. Around the fort perimeter and inside the plaza the loose sand may require extra exertion and stability measures for visitors with accessibility needs.

Plaza Access into the Replica Fort

Entry into the replica fort is limited to the central plaza on scheduled days. For your safety respect all closures and restrictions. Guided tours provide access into additional areas. More Information>

Capacity Restrictions at the Replica Fort

The design of the replica fort fails to meet accessibility, fire, and life-safety requirements of 1976. A lack of code compliant components such as emergency lighting, illuminated exit signage, panic hardware on doors, and outwardly swinging exit doors results in a limitation of 49 occupants for visitor operations within the replica fort. More Information>

Learn More about the Replica Fort

Bent’s Old Fort was completely reconstructed by the National Park Service in 1975-1976, and was dedicated on July 25, 1976. The dedication of the reconstructed fort coincided with America's bicentennial and the centennial of Colorado's statehood. Today it stands as a reminder of how the United States has remembered its past. Rather than preserving a ruin, the project sought to create an immersive, educational experience through a scale model that would make the region’s past tangible and accessible to future generations.

The new fort was built over the foundation of the original fort, and the walls were constructed of a Portland cement brick inner wall and an outer wall of stabilized adobe brick clad in adobe render. This resulted from an effort to reduce immediate and long-term costs and maintenance, by utilizing a mixture of Santa Fe adobe and contemporary masonry design. Over time, stucco was applied over the adobe render before the exterior walls were later “repaired” utilizing concrete block and cement stucco. Because of this hybrid design, special attention was required for structural continuity, finishing, and drainage of the walls and roofs. Other design components of the reconstructed fort consisted of concrete foundation, floors, and roof decks, concrete bond beams, insulation and water proofing, radiant heating, exhausting ventilation, plumbing, lighting, and power. These changes to the design aimed to improve the durability of the new fort, yet quickly led to significant engineering and design failures.

The high cost of maintenance and upkeep of the reconstructed fort in the years after its completion led to a push for finding alternative materials that were more resistant to climatic and structural factors. This legacy of ad hoc repair has further complicated the conditions within the reconstruction.

More Information>

Explore The High Plains

Bent's Old Fort is the beginning of a story that stretches across two other national park units in Southeast Colorado and one in Northeast New Mexico. Extend your experience by visiting Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and Amache National Historic Site, each approximately a one hour drive from Bent's Old Fort. Just across the state line in New Mexico, Capulin Volcano National Monument offers sweeping views and the opportunity to get a close up experience on an extinct volcano.

Follow the Santa Fe Trail

Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site explores the story of the Bent, St. Vrain and Company and their trading outpost on the Arkansas River. The fort was located along the northern Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe National Historic Trail preserves sites east and west of the fort that further explore this story.

For additional information about visiting Southeast Colorado, check in with La Junta Tourism and learn more about the Canyons & Plains region.

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