The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately 122 miles (196 km) long and 74 miles (119 km) wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It contains 6 counties and portions of 3 others. It is an extensive high-elevation depositional basin of approximately 8,000 square miles (21,000 km2) with an average elevation of 7,664 feet (2,336 m) above sea level. The valley is a section of the Rio Grande Rift and is drained to the south by the Rio Grande, which rises in the San Juan Mountains to the west of the valley and flows south into New Mexico. The San Luis Valley has a cold desert climate but has substantial water resources from the Rio Grande and groundwater.
Costilla County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,499. The county seat is San Luis, the oldest continuously occupied town in Colorado.
Founded in 1851, the Town of Manassa is a Statutory Town and is the most populous municipality in Conejos County, Colorado, United States. The town's population was 947 at the 2020 United States Census.
Fort Garland is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The Fort Garland post office has the ZIP Code 81133. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Fort Garland CDP was 464.
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 Southern Ute Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in southwestern Colorado, United States, near the northern New Mexico state line. Its territory consists of land from three counties; in descending order of surface area they are La Plata, Archuleta, and Montezuma Counties. The reservation has a land area of 1,058.785 sq mi (2,742.24 km²). Its largest communities are Ignacio and Arboles. The only other community that is recognized as a separate place by the Census Bureau is the CDP of Southern Ute, which lies just southeast of Ignacio.
Chama is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office in Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Chama Post Office is 81126.
San Pablo is an unincorporated community located in Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The San Luis post office (Zip Code 81152) serves San Pablo postal addresses. San Pablo is located in the Rio Culebra valley of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant which was awarded to the family of Carlos Beaubien in 1843.
San Acacio is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The population of the San Acacio CDP was 56 at the 2020 United States census. The Sanford post office serves San Acacio postal addresses.
Sangre de Cristo Ranches is an unincorporated community located near Fort Garland in Costilla County, Colorado, United States. The U.S. Post Office at Fort Garland serves Sangre de Cristo Ranches postal addresses.
Fort Garland (1858–1883), Colorado, United States, was designed to house two companies of soldiers to protect settlers in the San Luis Valley, then in the Territory of New Mexico. It was named for General John Garland, commander of the Military District of New Mexico.
Rio Culebra is a river or creek in Costilla County, Colorado. The Rio Culebra rises in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and is 48 km (30 mi) long. It empties into the Rio Grande west of the town of San Luis. The region around San Luis features extensive agriculture made possible by irrigation water from the river. Sometimes called the "Culebra Basin" this area is known for the extensive irrigation canals called acequias built by its Hispanic settlers in the 19th century and still in use in the 21st century
Hispanic and Latino Coloradans are residents of the state of Colorado who are of Hispanic or Latino ancestry. As of 2020, Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 21% of the state's population, or 1,269,520 of the state's 5,770,545 residents.
Fort Massachusetts was a military installation built in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado. It was located near the western bank of Ute Creek on the base of Mount Blanca and sat at an elevation of 8,000 feet, approximately 6 miles north of present-day Fort Garland.
Mountain Home Reservoir is a reservoir and state wildlife area in Costilla County, Colorado, near Fort Garland. Frozen in winter, the reservoir lies at 2,483 meters elevation on the western slope of the Culebra Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado.
The San Luis Hills are a group of small mountain ranges in Conejos and Costilla counties in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. The individual mountain ranges that make up the San Luis Hills include the Fairy Hills, the Brownie Hills, the Piñon Hills, and the South Piñon Hills. The San Luis Hills' highest point is Flat Top, elevation 9,206 feet
The Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic and Historic Byway is a 129-mile (208 km) Back Country Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Alamosa, Conejos, and Costilla counties, Colorado, USA. The byway explores the historic San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado including Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve; the Old Spanish National Historic Trail; historic Fort Garland, San Luis (San Luis de la Culebra), the oldest town in Colorado; and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.
The Sangre de Cristo Land Grant in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico consists of 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) of mostly arid land. It was awarded by the government of New Mexico to the Beaubien family in 1843. The land grant was originally settled by Hispanics from New Mexico. Since the incorporation of the area of the grant into the United States in 1848, legal disputes between the descendants of the Hispanic settlers and Anglo ranchers about ownership of and access to some of the land in the grant area have been frequent and continued into the 21st century.
Rito Seco is a tributary of Culebra Creek in Costilla County, Colorado. The name means dry creek in the dialect of Spanish spoken in southern Colorado and New Mexico.
United States 
State of Colorado 
