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Sangre de Cristo Range

American mountain range

Sangre de Cristo Range
Summary

American mountain range

FieldValue
nameSangre de Cristo Range
other_nameNorthern Sangre de Cristo Mountains
photoSangredecristomtns.JPG
photo_size350px
photo_captionSangre de Cristo Range seen from Hardscrabble Pass.
etymologySangre de Cristo
countryUnited States
subdivision1Colorado
subdivision2_typeCounties
subdivision2
parentSangre de Cristo Mountains, Rocky Mountains
borders_on
age
orogenyFault-block mountains
area_mi21250
length_mi75
length_orientationnorth-south
width_mi48
width_orientationeast-west
highestBlanca Peak
elevation_ft14345
coordinates
mapUSA Colorado
labelSangre de Cristo Range

the northernmost extent of the greater Sangre de Cristo mountain range

The Sangre de Cristo Range is a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southern Colorado in the United States, running north and south along the east side of the Rio Grande Rift. The mountains extend southeast from Poncha Pass for about 75 mi through south-central Colorado to La Veta Pass, approximately 20 mi west of Walsenburg, and form a high ridge separating the San Luis Valley on the west from the watershed of the Arkansas River on the east. The Sangre de Cristo Range rises over 7000 ft above the valleys and plains to the west and northeast.

According to the USGS, the range is the northern part of the larger Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which extend through northern New Mexico. Usage of the terms "Sangre de Cristo Range" and "Sangre de Cristo Mountains" is varied; however, this article discusses only the mountains between Poncha Pass and La Veta Pass.

Notable peaks

A 14er is a mountain peak that has an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. Colorado has 53, the most of any state. There are 10 14ers in the Sangre de Cristo Range, which can be seen in the table below.

Peak nameElevationProminence
Blanca Peak14351 ft5326}}5326 ft
Crestone Peak14300 ft4534}}4534 ft
Crestone Needle14197 ft437}}437 ft
Kit Carson Peak{{convert14165ftmabbr=on}}
Challenger Point14080 ft281}}281 ft
Humboldt Peak14064 ft1164}}1164 ft
Culebra Peak14047 ft4806}}4806 ft
Ellingwood Point14042 ft322}}322 ft
Mount Lindsey14042 ft1522}}1522 ft
Little Bear Peak14037 ft357}}357 ft
Columbia Point13960 ft320}}320 ft
Mount Adams13937 ft851}}851 ft
California Peak13855 ft609}}609 ft
Rito Alto Peak13800 ft1114}}1114 ft
Colony Baldy13711 ft905}}905 ft
Pico Aislado13612 ft837}}837 ft
Tijeras Peak13610 ft724}}724 ft
Electric Peak13601 ft915}}915 ft
Cottonwood Peak13504 ft1108}}1108 ft
Twin Peaks13560 ft600}}600 ft
Broken Hand Peak13579 ft653}}653 ft
Fluted Peak13560 ft714}}714 ft
Milwaukee Peak13528 ft282}}282 ft

Geography

Seen from the San Luis Valley

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains run from Poncha Pass in Central Colorado to Glorieta Pass near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most of the range is shared by two National Forests, which abut along the range divide. Most of the northeast (Arkansas River) side is located within the San Isabel National Forest, while most of the southwest (San Luis Valley) side is included in the Rio Grande National Forest. The central part of the range is designated as the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve sits on the southwestern flank of the range at the edge of the San Luis Valley. The range divide is traversed by no paved roads, only by four-wheel drive and foot trails over Hayden Pass, Hermit Pass, Music Pass, Medano Pass, and Mosca Pass.

Northern Sangre de Cristo Range seen from [[Coaldale, Colorado]].

The highest peak in the range, located in the south, is Blanca Peak at 14345 ft; it is flanked by three other fourteeners: Little Bear Peak, Mount Lindsey, and Ellingwood Point.Ellingwood Point is not always counted as an official fourteener, as it has a high saddle connecting it with Blanca Peak, and hence a low topographic prominence. Other well-known peaks are the fourteeners of the Crestone group: Kit Carson Mountain, Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle, and Humboldt Peak. Two sub-peaks of Kit Carson Mountain, Challenger Point and Columbia Point, are named in memory of the crews of the Space Shuttle Challenger and the Space Shuttle Columbia. The range is also home to many high peaks in the 13,000 to 14,000 foot (3,900-4,300 m) range as it continues into New Mexico. In New Mexico most of the mountain area is managed by the US Forest Service in the Carson and Santa Fe National Forests.

Geology

The Colorado Sangre de Cristos are fault-block mountains similar to the Teton Range in Wyoming and the Wasatch Range in Utah. Major fault lines run along the east and west sides of the range, and cut right through the mountains in some places. Like all fault-block mountain ranges, the Sangre de Cristos lack foothills which means the highest peaks rise abruptly from the valleys to the east and west, rising 7000 ft in only a few miles in some places. The mountains were pushed up around 5 million years ago, basically as one large mass of rock. The Sangre de Cristo range is still being uplifted today as faults in the area remain active. Due to uplift (elevation increase) and erosion, rock layers are missing, causing gaps in the range, called "unconformities."

The Sangre de Cristo Range rising above the [[Great Sand Dunes National Park

On the west side is the San Luis Valley, a portion of the Rio Grande Rift. On the southeast side is the Raton Basin, a quiet but still active volcanic field. On the northeast side are the Wet Mountains and the Front Range, areas of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks formed during the Colorado orogeny some 1.7 billion years ago and then uplifted more recently during the Laramide orogeny.

The Blanca Massif is also Precambrian rock, while most of the rest of the Sangres is composed of younger Permian-Pennsylvanian (about 250-million-year-old) rock, a mix of sedimentary conglomerates, silty mudstones and shales, sandstones, limestone beds and igneous intrusions. These sedimentary rocks originated as sediment eroded from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. Crestone Conglomerate are a feature on many of the peaks, including Crestone Needle. The conglomerate settled near the uplift and contains boulders as large as 6 feet in diameter.

Climate

Year23.4 (-4.8)58.8 (14.88)0.7 (16.02)3.3 (7.92)

History

Antonio Valverde y Cosio named the Sangre de Cristo range after the red-hue that he saw during the snowy sunrise. Sangre de Cristo means Blood of Christ in English.

In the formation of the range, we can see fossils of footprints, shells and bones.

In August 2009, the Sangre de Cristo Range was dedicated as a National Heritage Area (NHA), an area of cultural, natural, and historic preservation.

Economy

Today, tourism is the main economic activity.

References

;Notes

References

  1. "The Colorado 14ers {{!}} List of 58 Fourteener Mountains".
  2. "Blanca Peak".
  3. "Crestone Peak".
  4. "Crestone Needle".
  5. "Kit Carson Mountain".
  6. "Challenger Point".
  7. "Humboldt Peak".
  8. "Culebra Peak - Northwest Ridge {{!}} Route".
  9. "Ellingwood Point".
  10. "Mount Lindsey".
  11. "Little Bear Peak".
  12. "Columbia Point".
  13. "Mount Adams".
  14. "California Peak".
  15. "Rito Alto Peak".
  16. "Colony Baldy".
  17. "Pico Aislado".
  18. "Tijeras Peak".
  19. "Electric Peak".
  20. "Cottonwood Peak".
  21. "Twin Peaks".
  22. "Broken Hand Peak".
  23. "Fluted Peak".
  24. "Milwaukee Peak".
  25. (2018-09-16). "The Sangre de Cristo Mountains".
  26. "USGS Circular 1349: The Geologic Story of Colorado's Sangre de Cristo Range".
  27. (2017-04-01). "Paleosols of the upper Paleozoic Sangre de Cristo Formation, north-central New Mexico: Record of early Permian palaeoclimate in tropical Pangaea". Journal of Palaeogeography.
  28. "Sangre de Cristo Mountains : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost".
  29. (2015-03-25). "Alamosa, CO, Colorado, USA: Climate, Global Warming, and Daylight Charts and Data".
  30. "Sangre de Cristo Mountains {{!}} mountains, United States {{!}} Britannica".
  31. "Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area - Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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