 From there it followed the Santa Fe Trail west, then turned north along the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains over the Arkansas/Platte River divide and descended along Cherry Creek (Colorado) into the valley of the South Platte River.The original 1849 trail followed the east side of the South Platte River to present-day Greeley then west via a wagon road to Laporte in Larimer County.From Laporte, the wagon road was built north past present-day Livermore Stage Station to the Laramie Plains The route emerged in southeastern Wyoming near Tie Siding and on across the Laramie Basin.