Huerfano County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,820. The county seat is Walsenburg. The county, whose name comes from the Spanish huérfano meaning "orphan", was named for the Huerfano Butte, a local landmark. The area of Huerfano County boomed early in the 1900s with the discovery of large coal deposits. After large scale World War II coal demand ended in the 1940s Walsenburg and Huerfano saw a steady economic decline through 2015.
The Wet Mountain Valley is a high elevation mountain valley mostly located in Custer County but extending southward into Huerfano County in south-central Colorado. Westcliffe and Silver Cliff are the two towns in the valley which is mostly devoted to cattle ranching.
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. The mountains run from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast and south, ending at Glorieta Pass, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The mountains contain a number of fourteen thousand foot peaks in the Colorado portion, as well as several peaks in New Mexico which are over thirteen thousand feet.
Blanca Peak is the fourth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The ultra-prominent 14,351-foot (4,374 m) peak is the highest summit of the Sierra Blanca Massif, the Sangre de Cristo Range, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The fourteener is located 9.6 miles (15.5 km) north by east of the Town of Blanca, on the drainage divide separating Rio Grande National Forest and Alamosa County from the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant and Costilla County. The summit is the highest point of both counties and the entire drainage basin of the Rio Grande. Below the steep North Face of Blanca Peak two live Glaciers once developed, until extinction sometime after 1903. North & South Blanca Glaciers were located at 37° 35N.,longitude 105° 28W. Blanca Peak is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude.
The Spanish Peaks Wilderness is a 19,226 acres (77.80 km2) wilderness area in Huerfano County and Las Animas County, Colorado, United States, located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Walsenburg. All of the wilderness area is located within San Isabel National Forest, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
The Wet Mountains are a small mountain range in southern Colorado, named for the amount of snow they receive in the winter as compared to the dry Great Plains to the east. They are a sub-range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the southern Rocky Mountains System. There are three variant names of mountain range: Cuerno Verde, Greenhorn Mountains, and Sierra Mojada.
Gardner is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The Gardner post office has the ZIP Code 81040. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Gardner CDP was 106.
Badito is a ghost town along the Huerfano River in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. It is located at the intersection of Colorado State Highway 69 and County Road 520. A post office named Little Orphan, Colorado opened on May 1, 1865, but the name was changed to Badito on September 12, 1865. Badito served as the Huerfano County seat from 1868 to 1874. The Badito post office closed on November 15, 1910.
The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness is a long and narrow wilderness area covering 220,803 acres (893.56 km2) of the Sangre de Cristo Range centered about Saguache and Custer counties, Colorado. Smaller areas are located in Fremont, Alamosa, and Huerfano counties. The wilderness area is located on in the San Isabel and Rio Grande National Forests and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. The wilderness area is home to several fourteeners and quite a few thirteeners. Crestone Needle is considered the most difficult.
Cuchara is an unincorporated community in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. It is located near a former ski resort in the mountains south of the town of La Veta. Its altitude is 8,468 feet (2,581 m). State Highway 12 travels through Cuchara as it approaches Trinidad to the southeast.
Huerfano River is a 113-mile-long (182 km) tributary of the Arkansas River in Pueblo and Huerfano counties in Colorado, United States.
Sangre de Cristo Pass, elevation 9,468-foot (2,886 m), is a mountain pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the U.S. State of Colorado. The pass is located immediately north of U.S. Highway 160 one half mile northwest of North La Veta Pass. The pass separates Costilla County from Huerfano County, the Rio Grande drainage basin from the Arkansas River basin, and the headwaters of Sangre de Cristo Creek from those of Oak Creek.
Mount Mestas is a mountain summit in the southeastern Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 11,573-foot (3,527 m) peak is located 3.2 miles (5.1 km) southeast of North La Veta Pass in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The mountain was known as La Veta Peak until 1949 when it was renamed in honor of PFC Felix B. Mestas Jr. who was killed in action during the Second World War.
Mount Zwischen is a prominent mountain summit in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 12,011-foot (3,661 m) peak is located 32.1 miles (51.6 km) northeast of the City of Alamosa, Colorado, United States, on the drainage divide separating the Great Sand Dunes Wilderness in Great Sand Dunes National Preserve and Huerfano County from the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness in San Isabel National Forest and Saguache County.
Iron Mountain is a prominent mountain summit in the southern Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 11,416-foot (3,480 m) peak is located 3.9 miles (6.2 km) west-northwest of the North La Veta Pass, Colorado, United States, on the drainage divide between Costilla and Huerfano counties.
Mosca Pass, elevation 9,714 feet, is a mountain pass in Alamosa and Huerfano counties in the Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado. The pass lies on the eastern border of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve about 40 miles west of Walsenburg, Colorado. It marks the boundary between the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve to the west and San Isabel National Forest to the east, and it also lies on the border between Alamosa and Huerfano counties.
Cuchara or cucharas may refer to:
Silver Mountain, elevation 10,525 ft (3,208 m), is a mountain in Huerfano County, Colorado. It is part of the southern Sangre de Cristo Range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America. Silver Mountain is located northeast of Mount Mestas and north of the Spanish Peaks.
William Thomas Sharp was a former Confederate soldier and later an explorer who operated a trading post on the Taos Trail and founded the now extinct town of Malachite, Colorado. It was located on the Huerfano River in Huerfano County, Colorado. He became a nationally known horse and cattle breeder.
Pass Creek Pass, elevation 9,380 feet (2,860 m), is a mountain pass along the border between Huerfano and Costilla counties in the southern part of the US state of Colorado. The pass marks the division between the Rio Grande and Arkansas River watersheds. Pass Creek flows generally north from the pass, merging with the Huerfano River near Gardner, Colorado. Sangre de Cristo Creek drains the south side of the pass.
United States 
Colorado 
