At this location you can see grooves running off to the north-west as well as to the south-east. These grooves are swales formed by wagons on the Smoky Hill Trail.
The Starvation Trail was the original Trail. After so many people died of starvation and dehydration, people began to favor a South Trail that runs through Kiowa and Parker or a North Trail which has become I-70 and Colfax.
If you follow these wheel grooves on a map, they eventually match up with Smoky Hill Road.