The Taos Plateau is actually a southern extension of the San Luis Valley of Colorado, a virtually flat valley shaped like an arrowhead pointing north into the heart of Colorado. Bordered by the San Juan Mountains to the west and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east, the valley is approximately 74 miles wide by 122 miles long with the Rio Grande River entering from the west and then turning to flow down into New Mexico.
North of Taos our path north skirts the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo before descending to the valley floor.
The San Luis Valley was avoided by pueblo dwellers and early Spanish settlers who were wary of being attacked by the Ute and Comanche who periodically wandered across the valley. The first settlement in the valley was the small village of San Luis de la Culebra in 1851, the oldest continually inhabited town in Colorado. The rather shabby little town is dominated by the Stations of the Cross Shrine, built in 1990 on a mesa overlooking the town. Fourteen bronze statues depicting Christ’s passion and resurrection mark a half mile trail that winds up the mesa to the shrine. This old man wasn’t up to hiking up the mesa, so you’ll have to be satisfied with a picture!
Beyond San Luis the Sangre de Cristo’s loom above the valley floor.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 marked the end of the Mexican-American War and marked the official American occupation of the west. Fort Garland, named after General John Garland, commander of the Military District of New Mexico, was established at the foot of Mt Blanco in 1858.
Fort Garland
The purpose of the fort was to protect settlers and those headed to the San Juan gold fields from the Ute Indians. A treaty with the Utes was negotiated in 1867 by Colonel Kit Carson but on-going tensions between the Utes and prospectors kept the fort in operation until the Utes were moved to reservations further west. Fort Garland was finally decommissioned in 1883 with the arrival of the railroad from the east. The fort complex was built in the shaped of a rectangle and eventually contained 22 buildings, built of adobe with walls up to 3 feet thick. The fort passed through several owners, parts were destroyed, and finally in 1928 locals formed the Fort Garland Historical Association in an effort to preserve the remaining buildings. The Great Depression prevented any restoration and in 1945 the site was purchased by the Colorado Historical Society. At the time only five of the original buildings remained. They were restored and the historical society continues to operate the site as a museum.
Once through the entry one can see the central plaza surrounded by the individual buildings.
The interior of the five buildings have been restored so one can imagine how life on the frontier might have been for the soldiers and their families.
A picture from 1874 shows how little the remaining buildings have changed from their original appearance.
Our next stop in the San Luis Valley is a geological wonder, not a historical site. The towering San Juan Mountains over 65 miles to the west are continually eroded by wind, rain and snow. A huge lake once filled the valley floor, forming a home for the eroded sediment from both the San Juan’s to the west and the Sangre de Cristo to the east. The prevailing winds in the valley (which seem to blow all the time!) blow from the southwest and as the lake gradually dried up winds blew the sand and dust from the evaporating lake up against the Sangre de Cristo, forming a massive row of sand dunes. Today this is Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Great Sand Dunes National Park
About ten miles west of Fort Garland we turn north off the highway and head 16 miles along the western edge of the Sangre de Cristo. A narrow line of beige in the distance marks the location of the sand dunes.
A bit closer a curve in the road gives a good view of the dunes, though misleading in terms of their actual size…
Once in the national park one can approach the dunes from a visitor’s area. The first thing I notice is that a number of people are carrying what appears to be skateboards but which, upon closer inspection, more closely resemble miniature surf boards. Turns out that people make the very difficult trek up the sand dunes and then ride their “sand boards” down!
This picture gives a better perspective on the size of the dunes. The “dots” at the end of each of the arrows are actually people climbing the dunes.
As I turn around and head back south towards the highway the flat valley stretches out to the west with the San Juan Mountains marking the horizon.
Now our path turns directly north, running up the flat floor of the San Luis Valley until we near the “point” of the arrowhead. A bridge of low mountains forms a link between the San Juan Mountains to the west and the Sangre de Christo Mountains to the east and raises a low barrier between the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado and the upper Arkansas River Valley of central Colorado. The Collegiate Peaks of central Colorado rise on the other side of the low pass between the two valleys.
As we climb up and over Poncha Pass the colors of fall sprawl across the hillsides. The flat Upper Arkansas River Valley lies in the distance.
Next Up: The Heart of Colorado