"A Journey" is a theme built for a route, not a place, and the Old Spanish National Historic Trail is exactly that: a trade and travel corridor that once carried people and goods across some of the most demanding terrain in the West, between New Mexico and California.
Mapping the historic sites, not just the line
Using National Park Service trail data, the map marks the historic sites that defined the route through Utah — the points where travelers crossed the state's canyons and basins on their way west. The trail itself is the connective tissue; the sites are what give it a story.
Why it's worth mapping
Historic trails are an easy category to overlook next to flashier thematic data, but they're a reminder that GIS is as much about preserving and communicating history as it is about analyzing the present. A route like this links cultures, commerce, and communities across a landscape that hasn't gotten any easier to cross since.
Created for the “A Journey” theme of the 2024 #30DayMapChallenge, using National Park Service trail data.