Rio Grande National Forest is a 1.86 million-

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

(7,530 km²) USDA Forest Service, Rio Grande National Forest
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U.S. National Forest In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands. National forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned collectively by the American people through the federal government, and managed by t ...

located in southwestern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The forest encompasses the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It co ...

, which is the world's largest

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

valley, as well as one of the world's largest high deserts located around mountains. The

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

rises in the forest, and the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

runs along most of its western border. The forest lies in parts of nine counties. In descending order of land area within the forest they are Saguache,

Mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

, Conejos,

, Hinsdale,

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

, Alamosa,

Archuleta ''Archuleta'' is a unique family name with origins in Spain. The surname ranked 2,762 out of 88,799 in the United States. Origin The name ''Archuleta'' is a Castillian derivation of Basque ''Arechuleta'', which ultimately comes from the place na ...

, and Custer counties. Forest headquarters are currently located in

Monte Vista, Colorado The City of Monte Vista is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Rio Grande County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 4,245 at the 2020 Census. History Monte Vista was laid out in 1884. The site h ...

, but plan to move to Del Norte. There are local ranger district offices in Del Norte, La Jara, and Saguache.USFS Ranger Districts by State
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Wilderness areas

There are four officially designated

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

s lying within Rio Grande National Forest that are part of the

National Wilderness Preservation System The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the Na ...

. All of them extend partially into neighboring National Forests, and one of these also onto

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

land (as indicated). *

La Garita Wilderness The La Garita Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in the La Garita Mountains of southern Colorado. The wilderness established in 1964 in Gunnison and Rio Grande National Forests includes segments of the Colorado Trail and the Contine ...

(mostly in Gunnison NF) *

Sangre de Cristo Wilderness The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness is a long and narrow wilderness area covering of the Sangre de Cristo Range centered about Saguache and Custer counties, Colorado. Smaller areas are located in Fremont, Alamosa, and Huerfano counties. The wilde ...

(the largest part in San Isabel NF; also partly in

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to tall on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south- ...

) * South San Juan Wilderness (partly in San Juan NF) * Weminuche Wilderness (mostly in San Juan NF)

Climate

References

External links

Wilderness areas

Climate

See also

References

External links