Photo: Rio Grande Scenic Railroad to Alamosa, Colorado by Larry Lamsa Nestled in the heart of the San Luis Valley, Alamosa may be just four hours from Denver, but it’s a world away from the hustle and bustle of the Front Range. Visitors to the Centennial State often picture powder-covered…
There’s plenty to do at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, but sandboarding is without a doubt the most novel activity on offer. Nestled at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the park’s dunes (which encompass 19,000 acres) likely started forming nearly half a million years ago. Their…
No visit to the San Luis Valley is complete without a taste test of the region’s best-known staple: green chili. Thanks to its proximity to New Mexico—long considered the capital of green chili—southern Colorado is among the best places to sample this wondrous sauce, which is rich in history as…
Thanks to its proximity to New Mexico, the San Luis Valley shares many of its signature flavors with its neighbors immediately to the south. Traders and merchants used the Old Spanish Trail, along with several other major thoroughfares, to move goods between the San Luis Valley, New Mexico, and California,…
Cumbres Pass is no stranger to human travel. The San Luis Valley’s earliest residents, including groups of Ute, Navajo, Apache, and Comanche, were responsible for creating trails throughout the San Juan Mountains. One of these paths, worn into the earth over time by thousands of feet, was over Cumbres Pass,…
Whoever said there was nothing new under the sun? It’s hard to believe in a mountain biking mecca like Colorado, but the Del Norte area is experiencing a renaissance, and mountain bikers are the main beneficiaries. Del Norte is situated such that its trails run through both high alpine and…
The 93-mile-long Conejos River, a tributary of the Rio Grande, drains the eastern San Juan Mountains, which features some of the San Luis Valley’s most incredible scenery. Flowing from snowmelt beginning just northeast of Pagosa Springs, the Conejos meets up with the Rio Grande about 15 miles southeast of Alamosa;…
Bordered by Colorado State Highway 17 and the Rio Grande River, Blanca Vista Park offers stunning views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve from several pleasant loop trails. There’s also a nearly 25-acre pond, where visitors can see a variety of wildlife,…
Originally a national monument, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was established in its current state in 2004. Today, the park encompasses some 44,000-plus acres, 19,000 of which are covered by the dunefield, and the adjacent preserve protects nearly 42,000 more. True to its name, Great Sand Dunes is…
With a watershed of more than 180,000 square miles, the Rio Grande is one of the most vital rivers in the American West. Its headwaters are in the alpine terrain above history-rich Creede, Colorado, and it flows nearly 1,900 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Of all those miles, though,…