Contact Information
1803 West Hwy
Monte Vista, CO 81144
719-852-5941
The immaculate 14,000-foot jagged summits of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) and the San Juan Mountains dominate the horizon in southwestern Colorado. Hikers and rock climbers can explore an intricate labyrinth of canyons straddled by sheer walls of welded volcanic tuff. Mountain bikers can explore a web of old logging and mining roads that snake their way through the forest along rock ledges carved into volcanic basalt cliffs. Fisherman can pull feisty trout and voracious pike out of secluded alpine lakes. The casual meanderer can wander through alpine meadows skirted by vast stands of Engelmann spruce, aspen, and fir. The geologically curious can marvel at the strange, otherworldly moonscape in the Wheeler Geologic Area where medieval spires are eroded from volcanic tuff. The forest is named for the mighty Rio Grande del Norte, or Great River of the North, as the early Spanish and Indian inhabitants of the Southwest called it. It is the third longest river in the U.S. and its headwaters are found here in the Rocky Mountains of south central Colorado before the slow-moving river carves its way for 2,000-miles along a shifting course to the Gulf of Mexico. The forest encompasses nearly 2 million acres along the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide.
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