There are a few options if, for some reason, you want to travel between Branson, Colorado, and Kenton, Oklahoma. You can take regular, paved roads. One choice would take you north through Kim, Colorado; that’s about 100 miles, and Google thinks it’ll take a couple of hours to drive it. You could also take a wide swing to the south, through Folsom, New Mexico and the Santa Rita National Grasslands before heading back to the north to Kenton. That way’s also about 100 miles, with the same travel time.

Then there’s this route, where as soon as you clear Tollgate Canyon on the Colorado-New Mexico line, a left turn will put you on a route 456. It’s 62 miles to Kenton, with a Google-estimated travel time of 2 hours. Yep. That’s the way to get to Kenton.

Union County, New Mexico
photographed 9.5.2016