Old Spanish Trail film to premiere in Santa Fe
Documentary is based on real-life trek Californians took on horseback along 800 miles of famous pathway in 2014-15
A few years ago, a small group of California men on horseback rode an estimated 800 miles of the Old Spanish Trail, a historic pathway linking Los Angeles to Santa Fe. They pulled into the Santa Fe Plaza one day in September 2015, escorted by police and the local sheriff ’s posse.
Richard Waller, 67, one of the three riders, said he believes he and his friends, Jim Clark and Otis Calef, were the first to complete the quest since the 1,200-mile route was closed in 1848.
To avoid traveling through busy cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nev. — and to steer clear of precarious highway shoulders — they cut out about 400 miles of the original trade route, which carries travelers up into Nevada and Utah before descending down through Colorado and into Northern New Mexico.
The men completed their journey in two separate 35-day trips in 2014 and 2015.
A film documenting their experience — and showcasing the beauty of the Southwest — will premiere Friday in Santa Fe. Director Benedicte Schoyen and others involved in the project say they hope the film, The Old Spanish Trail, inspires viewers to get outside and protect the natural world.
“I always feel it’s important to have adventures and to see our nation,” Waller said. “I do these things because of the historical aspect of it, the wildland aspect of it …
and to preserve [the land].”
The Old Spanish Trail was a heavily trafficked trade route in the 1830s and ’40s, but it has since become a relatively forgotten piece of history, Waller said. He wanted the chance to “go back in time” and experience the area as it was nearly 200 years ago.
He recalled his favorite memory from the trip: riding along Utah’s rugged San Rafael Swell down to Green River and continuing south of Moab.
“There was no trail, nothing except us and the rocks and the juniper,” he said.
Calef, 74, compared it to a sea voyage or a hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.
“You never know how each day will end,” he said.
Thinking of the trail’s past, he said, put things into perspective for him.
When it rained, he’d imagine families traveling in wagons, getting stuck in the thick clay and having to wait a week or two for the ground to dry.
The trail looks different now than it did then, Calef added.
Even in remote areas, gas pipelines and overhead transmission lines frequently disrupt the scenery.
Schoyen said the modernization was a bit disheartening.
“Of course the world is being developed,” she said, “but it’s very sad that some of these routes from the past are being overtaken by concrete.”