| Sangre de Cristo Range | |
| Northern Sangre de Cristo Range | |
| Range | |
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The Sangre de Cristo Range from a location about 6 miles south of Villa Grove, Colorado
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| Name origin: Sangre de Cristo Spanish: Blood of Christ | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Colorado |
| County | Chaffee, Fremont, Custer, Saguache, Huerfano |
| Part of | Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Rocky Mountains |
| Borders on | San Luis Valley, Arkansas River watershed |
| Highest point | Blanca Peak |
| - elevation | 14,345 ft (4,372 m) |
| - coordinates | |
| Length | 59 mi (95 km), north-south |
| Width | 48 mi (77 km), east-west |
| Area | 1,250 sq mi (3,237 km2) |
| Orogeny | Fault-block mountains |
| Period | Precambrian, Permian-Pennsylvanian |
The Sangre de Cristo Range, called the East Range locally in the San Luis Valley, is a narrow mountain range of the Rocky Mountains running north and south along the east side of the Rio Grande Rift in southern Colorado in the United States. The mountains extend southeast from Poncha Pass for about 75 miles (120 km) through south-central Colorado to La Veta Pass, approximately 20 miles (32 km) 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.
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.
Contents |
| Peak name | Elevation | Prominence |
|---|---|---|
| Blanca Peak [1] | 14,351 ft (4,374 m) | 5,326 ft (1,623 m) |
| Crestone Peak [2] | 14,300 ft (4,400 m) | 4,534 ft (1,382 m) |
| Crestone Needle [3] | 14,197 ft (4,327 m) | 437 ft (133 m) |
| Kit Carson Peak [4] | 14,165 ft (4,317 m) | 1,005 ft (306 m) |
| Challenger Point [5] | 14,080 ft (4,290 m) | 281 ft (86 m) |
| Humboldt Peak [6] | 14,064 ft (4,287 m) | 1,164 ft (355 m) |
| Ellingwood Point [7] | 14,042 ft (4,280 m) | 322 ft (98 m) |
| Mount Lindsey [8] | 14,042 ft (4,280 m) | 1,522 ft (464 m) |
| Little Bear Peak [9] | 14,037 ft (4,278 m) | 357 ft (109 m) |
| Columbia Point [10] | 13,960 ft (4,260 m) | 320 ft (98 m) |
| Mount Adams [11] | 13,937 ft (4,248 m) | 851 ft (259 m) |
| California Peak [12] | 13,855 ft (4,223 m) | 609 ft (186 m) |
| Rito Alto Peak [13] | 13,800 ft (4,200 m) | 1,114 ft (340 m) |
| Colony Baldy [14] | 13,711 ft (4,179 m) | 905 ft (276 m) |
| Pico Aislado [15] | 13,612 ft (4,149 m) | 837 ft (255 m) |
| Tijeras Peak [16] | 13,610 ft (4,150 m) | 724 ft (221 m) |
| Electric Peak [17] | 13,601 ft (4,146 m) | 915 ft (279 m) |
| Cottonwood Peak [18] | 13,504 ft (4,116 m) | 1,108 ft (338 m) |
| Twin Peaks [19] | 13,560 ft (4,130 m) | 600 ft (180 m) |
| Broken Hand Peak [20] | 13,579 ft (4,139 m) | 653 ft (199 m) |
| Fluted Peak [21] | 13,560 ft (4,130 m) | 714 ft (218 m) |
| Milwaukee Peak [22] | 13,528 ft (4,123 m) | 282 ft (86 m) |
A more comprehensive list of Sangre de Cristo Mountains is given at Pikes Peak Photo and SummitPost sites: see External Links.
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 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, but only by four wheel drive and foot trails over Hayden Pass, Hermit Pass, Music Pass, Medano Pass, and Mosca Pass.
The highest peak in the range, located in the south, is Blanca Peak (14,345 feet/4,372 m); it is flanked by three other fourteeners, Little Bear Peak, Mount Lindsey, and Ellingwood Point.[23] 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. See the Sangre de Cristo Mountains article for other noteworthy summits in the greater range.
In 1719 the Spanish explorer Antonio Valverde y Cosio named the Sangre de Cristo ("Blood of Christ") mountains after being impressed by the reddish hue of the snowy peaks at sunrise, alpenglow. Today tourism is the main economic activity.
The Sangre de Cristos are fault-block mountains with major fault lines running along both the east and west sides of the mountains and, in places, cutting through the range. The mountains were pushed up about 27 million years ago, basically as one large mass of rock.
On the west side is the San Luis Valley with the Rio Grande Rift running down the middle. 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, shales, and igneous intrusions. These sedimentary rocks originated as sediment eroded from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains.