Summer in the country's highest alpine valley is filled with vibrant color against a backdrop of San Luis Valley sky, fields and mountains.  Gaze over the deep green farm fields of alfalfa, potatoes and barley as towering mountains rise from the valley floor to kiss the deep blue skies.

Although it snows in the mountains during the wintertime, down in the San Luis Valley it does not snow very much.  On average less than 35 inches each year.

Just sit back, have another sip of hot chocolate, and enjoy the snowcapped mountain views as you plan your daily Colorado adventure.

Would you like to escape the summer heat?

What is now known as Costilla County in the southeastern part of the San Luis Valley, this area was inhabited by the ancestors of today's families well before Colorado became a state.  Those first Hispano settlers brought with them a language and culture that still exists today, four hundred years after the Spanish first arrived in the Americas.  Except for the Native Americans who were here first,  this is the oldest community in Colorado.

First settled in 1851, the town of San Luis, oldest town in Colorado, is located in Costilla County in the southeastern part of the San Luis Valley. The oldest church, Our Lady of Guadalupe est. 1858, is located in the town of Conejos in the southwestern part of the San Luis Valley.

Today, you will still find farms and ranches just like when the area was first settled.  You will be able to meet ancestors of the original settlers.

There are 3 million acres of public land in this area, a ski area that receives the most snowfall in Colorado, the Rio Grande River is born in the mountains to the west, along with many lakes and other recreational areas and activities.

Would you like to escape the crowded, noisy city?

Main  Street  in  Alamosa

The town of Alamosa (Spanish for cottonwood and named for the trees that grow along the Rio Grande River) is the largest city in the area. Alamosa is approximately 25 miles from your property (30 minute drive).  With a population of approximately 14,000 people, Alamosa serves as the San Luis Valley’s regional hub.

• Alamosa Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Largest Hospital
• Airport
• Walmart Super Store
• Many Shopping Opportunities
• Numerous Restaurants
• 6-screen Movie Theater
• 2 Colleges -- Adams State College (4-year University) and Trinidad State Junior College

This country town may be small, but it has much to offer.

• Alamosa Neighborhood Profile

Town of Blanca with Blanca Peak in the background

The small country town of Blanca, population of approximately 400, is the closest town to your property.  (20-minute drive)  In this small, country town you will find many services, including:

• Lu's Main Street Cafe -- a very good country cafe restaurant.  Be sure to try their homemade green chili sauce and homemade pies.  There is another new restaurant in town, San Marcos, however I have yet to give it a try.
• More Restaurant Options
• Several general and grocery stores
• RV Park with a convenience store and gas pumps
• Public Laundry
• Post Office

Town of Blanca Info

Blanca Neighborhood Profile

Would you enjoy some history blended in with your experience?

This area is where people other than Native Americans first settled Colorado.

First settled in 1851, San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, is located about 25 miles south of your property. The oldest church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, is located in the town of Conejos in the southwestern part of the San Luis Valley.  The oldest business in the state of Colorado, the R&R Market in San Luis, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2007.

Coloradoans talk a lot about the state’s deep commitment to community. One place that demonstrates this well is Colorado’s oldest town, San Luis. Here, families measure their connection to the area not in years, but generations. Situated in a broad valley riddled with farms and surrounded by peaks, San Luis has always been at a crossroads of cultures. As a result, it is rich with timeless customs and historic sites.

The small country town of San Luis has a population of approximately 800 people.  San Luis is the county seat for Costilla County, where your property is located.  Here you will find the county government offices for Costilla County.

• San Luis Neighborhood Profile

Fort Garland
as seen from Highway 159 on the south side of town

Just up the road from Blanca is the small, country town of Fort Garland (8 miles east of the town of Blanca). Established in 1858, Fort Garland, with a garrison of over 100 men, served to protect the earliest settlers in the San Luis Valley. Fort Garland was one of a dozen forts built by the U.S. Army in the 1850s in the New Mexico Territory, acquired in 1848 as a result of the Mexican-American War. The fort played an important role in the country’s quest for Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion by establishing a U.S. military presence on the frontier and providing security for settlers in the region - mostly Hispanic - from native tribes, particularly the Ute tribes. This small historic town with a present day population of 430 has:

Fort Garland Neighborhood Profile

The following link will provide area history information.

Smith Reservoir Offers Fishing & Boating

The San Luis Valley is a year-round destination that offers a distinct mix of recreation and culture, landscape and activity. Snow ski at Wolf Creek Ski Area which receives the most snow in Colorado or snowshoe, cross-country ski, or snowmobile on the thousands of miles of mountain roads and trails. Anglers will find many miles of rivers and numerous lakes.

Outdoor enthusiasts -- there are 3 million acres of public land waiting for you to explore.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Located 5 miles east of the town of Monte Vista, Homelake is the former location of the Colorado Soldiers' and Sailors' Home and is the location of the Homelake Civil War Cemetery. Set amidst landscaped grounds, beautiful scenery, and a homelike campus atmosphere, the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake has been caring for our Colorado’s veterans and their families for over 115 years. Located in Colorado’s beautiful San Luis Valley, the Center exhibits a great sense of history and tradition. The Center includes a modern 60-bed skilled nursing facility and a 46-bed Domiciliary. The Domiciliary provides an "independent/ assisted-living" type environment with individual housing cottages.

Established in the San Luis Valley in 1889, the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake, also referred to as the Soldiers and Sailors Home, provided a peaceful place for aging and displaced Civil War veterans. This continuously operated complex is the oldest veterans’ center in the state and contains more than eighty structures. A cemetery with headstones in concentric circles surrounds a 1912 monument dedicated to veterans of the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Veterans of every major conflict from the Civil War to the current war in Iraq are buried there. Fifty-two structures on site are considered contributing to the State Register Historic District -- five buildings are listed individually.

In 2002, the Colorado General Assembly passed a statute to establish the center as a repository for all unclaimed military memorabilia. This, in addition to a considerable archive of military artifacts already collected, has supporters envisioning a significant public display.

With its rich and colorful history, beautiful grounds, and many historic buildings, the Homelake was recently designated as a "Colorado State Historical Site." Several of Homelake’s original buildings were constructed in the 1890’s when a group of local citizens together with the State Legislature established Homelake as a place for Colorado’s deserving Civil War veterans to live.

In September of 2008 a host of dignitaries and center residents dedicated an A7-D Corsair fighter jet in honor of Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney, who retired from his command in the Colorado Air National Guard last year. Whitney spent 17 years of his career flying Corsair jets including a stint during the Vietnam War.

Also in September 2008 the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake got a shot in the arm last week from a $5.1 million grant to upgrade its domiciliary cottages and historic chapel. The chapel was built in 1905, but has been closed to residents since 2004. The 12 cottages on the campus, which contain 24 units, were built between 1914 and 1942.

Click on picture for larger image

Click on picture for larger image

Housing built between 1914 and 1942

Click on picture for larger image

Soldiers and Sailors Home and Hospital

Website:   www.cdhs.state.co.us/svnh/Homelake.htm

3749 SHERMAN AVE
PO BOX 97
HOMELAKE, CO 81135

Phone: 719-852-5118  |  Toll Free: 888-838-2687  |  Fax: 719-852-3881

The oldest business in the state of Colorado, the R&R Market is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2007. The R&R Market is located in the oldest town in Colorado, San Luis. The celebration of the 150th anniversary of R&R Market will take place June 30.

The front of the R&R Market is shown today on Main Street in San Luis. The business will celebrate its 150th anniversary at the end of the month.

Dario Gallegos ran his mercantile store in this adobe building, shown here in 1876.

Local Resident Crestina Martinez Talks About Heritage

(from Colorado.com)

Coloradoans talk a lot about the state’s deep commitment to community. One place that demonstrates this well is Colorado’s oldest town, San Luis. Here, families measure their connection to the area not in years, but generations. Situated in a broad valley riddled with farms and surrounded by peaks, San Luis has always been at a crossroads of cultures. As a result, it is rich with timeless customs and historic sites. One proud resident is Crestina Martinez, who works for Costilla County and has pitched in on efforts to preserve the county’s adobe courthouse.  Crestina is the 7th generation of her family to live in the San Luis Valley.

What makes San Luis such a historically rich place?   Click here to read the entire article.

Between 25 to 35 million years ago, it is estimated that two-thirds of the state of Colorado was covered with volcanic rock, from the edge of the San Luis Valley all the way to Ouray and Silverton. For about 5 million years, there were caldera eruptions, like there are in Yellowstone, huge outflows of ash that make the ground sink in a circular pattern. We have 20 calderas that we know about, including the world's largest caldera, the La Garita Caldera, near Creede, Colorado. Creede itself is a small caldera, and one of the most well preserved on Earth.

State Geologist and director of the Colorado Geological Survey Vince Matthews takes a special interest in the lava dikes and calderas that spread from Walsenburg to the San Juan Mountains. The dramatic formations chronicle particularly splenetic periods of Colorado's geological history, as he notes in his book "Messages in Stone: Colorado's Colorful Geology."

Why are the Spanish Peaks lava dikes so interesting to geologists? Well, usually you find three or four dikes in an area. More than 500 dikes have been mapped in this area. That's more than anywhere else - that we know of - in the world. The other thing is that the dikes aren't all the same chemical composition. Different chemistry composition, different orientation, different ages and all beautifully exposed.

Why is the different chemical composition significant? Some are very dark, and others are lighter. Some are more susceptible to erosion. That means there were different sources for the molten material that came up. There are places where the dike itself is deeply weathered - eroded out, like an indentation - and the rock around it stands out rather than the dike itself.

How does that happen? The reason is because the molten material actually bakes the rock it comes into. The heat of the material - those particular chemicals - makes the surrounding rocks very strong, harder than the dike. There's a beautiful exposure as you drive into Walsenburg from the north, right as you crest the hill. You can see that the dike is intruded into the shale, and that the shale right next to the dike is very resistant. And that particular dike goes on for a number of miles. It's on the back of Lathrop State Park, called the Hogback.

What about the dikes surrounding the Spanish Peaks? Yes, the radiating dikes. That's not so unusual in itself, but on the west side of the peaks, the dikes don't radiate as much. They radiate on the other three sides, but the pattern is different on the west side. Some people think the stress field that allowed the radial dikes was formed by the uplift of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Perhaps the dikes were created during the uplift. It's not really clear.

San Luis Valley

The Largest Alpine Valley In North America

With a land area of close to 8,200 square miles, the San Luis Valley is larger than the land mass of Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut combined.  In spite of its size, the Valley never feels crowded. With a population density of about six people per square mile, there is plenty of open space. However, living in the Valley doesn’t require one to give up all the amenities of big city life. Alamosa, the Valley’s largest city, serves as the Valley’s regional hub. There you will find the area’s largest hospital, a regional airport, Adams State College, shopping opportunities and more.

If someone described seeing two bald eagles, a hawk, herds of elk and deer and thousands sandhill cranes all within one morning, you might think this is some sort of North American safari.  Believe it or not, this may be just a drive to work one morning here in the San Luis Valley. The opportunities for bird and wildlife watching here are nothing short of amazing.

The San Luis Valley is situated between the 14,000 foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains, including the 4th highest peak in Colorado - Blanca Peak.  The Valley has the second largest aquifer on the continent. This 8000 square mile, five county alpine valley is one of the most unique areas in the world.

Welcome to the San Luis Valley where the sun shines an average of  320 days a year.  This gives you plenty of great days to enjoy one of the 4 golf courses in the Valley.  Summer evenings are cool and the temperature seldom reaches 90 degrees during the day.

Elevation of the San Luis Valley varies from 7,500 to 8,200 feet above sea level.  It stretches roughly 75 miles from east to west, and 150 miles north to south.

High in the San Juan Mountains on the west side of the Valley, snow melt and rain give birth to the mighty Rio Grande River, second longest river in our nation.  The river winds through the Valley on its way to New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.   The Great Sand Dunes National Park is nestled at the base of Sangre de Cristo mountain range on the east side of the Valley.  This unique feature of nature is the newest National Park in the United States.

There are two national scenic byways, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway, more than 3 million acres of public lands in and around the valley, two national wildlife refuges, and hot springs. Wolf Creek Ski Area generally can boast the greatest snowfall amount each year.  In fact, the most snowfall ever recorded in Colorado fell at Wolf Creek - 850 inches in one year.

Hiking, biking, fishing, world-class hunting and four wheel exploration of the Sangre de Cristo, La Garita and the San Juan mountains all await your next visit.

You will find the famous Stations of the Cross in San Luis, oldest town in Colorado.  In the small town of Conejos is one of the oldest churches in the state.  This is the first area in Colorado to be settled.  You will find a lot of history in this mountain valley.

Education, art, culture, theater or a national repository library?  Adams State and Trinidad State Junior Colleges offer all this and much more.

The San Luis Valley is an unspoiled and largely undiscovered gem in south central Colorado. Whether it’s art, history or outdoor adventure, the San Luis Valley offers endless variations to explore.

The pure, crisp, dry mountain air and weather are most conducive to healthy living. Summers are warm, never hot -- rarely reaching 90 degrees -- with sunny days and cool nights. The winters are pleasant and the low humidity makes even cold temperatures comfortable.  (Climate Averages)  During autumn, the aspen and cottonwood trees turn to gold and the oak brush glows with a bright orange/red. A brilliant, colorful display before Colorado becomes the winter recreation center of the nation.

This area is rich in history by evidence from old wagon trails. You can still see the deep ruts in the ground left by the wagons that traveled along the trails.

CAUTION:   Horse  Drawn  Carriages

Please Drive Carefully and Friendly

Motorists in the San Luis Valley need to be watchful for the growing number of Amish and Mennonite populations who travel the roads and highways by horse drawn carriages.  Due to the religious lifestyle that calls for avoiding what many consider ‘modern conveniences’ many of the carriages, wagons and buggies do not have lights, reflectors or slow moving vehicle signs and may be especially difficult to see in bad weather or during hours of early morning, dusk or twilight.

In 2003, The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, purchased approximately 92,500 acres of private land in the San Luis Valley and established the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The $33 million project was designed to “restore, enhance, and maintain wetland, upland, riparian, and other habitats for wildlife, plants, and fish species that are native to the San Luis Valley.” The refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), contains the largest and most diverse assemblage of wetlands in all of Colorado. The refuge is next door to the town of Crestone and Colorado College’s Baca campus.

More Information On Solar Power

Golf    Fishing    Skiing    Hunting    Horseback Riding    Snowmobile Riding
Mountain Biking    Four Wheeler Riding    Hiking Trails

Peaceful  Relaxation

Platoro Reservoir is the highest man made lake in North America. Platoro Dam is on the Conejos River about 1 miles above the town of Platoro, Colorado. The Dam stores floodwaters of the Conejos River, a tributary of the Rio Grande, for release when the normal flow falls below irrigation requirements. The dam was completed in 1951 and regulates the water supply for 81,000 acres of land irrigated by the Conejos Water Conservancy District.

The reservoir is located in a high mountain valley with broad vistas of the San Juan Mountains. A wilderness area is located to the south of the reservoir area. Since the recreation season is short and the location remote, use is low to moderate.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve