1. Some 10,500 years ago, the San Juan Mountains were well-known to post-ice age hunters. The Folsom culture, as they are now called, hunted bison and gathered plants in high mountain valleys.
2. More recently, Ute Indians lived in this area and . . . — — Map (db m153322) HM
Few Spaniards glimpsed the uppermost reaches of the mysterious Rio Grande del Norte and those who did, did so by chance. In 1694 Diego de Vargas came nearly as far north as present-day Alamosa while detouring around hostile Pueblos, and Juan . . . — — Map (db m267998) HM
Cascading through the town of South Fork just west of here, the Rio Grande serves as a portal between two radically different worlds. To the west lie the roughhewn peaks and cloistered canyons of the San Juan Mountains. For centuries an impregnable . . . — — Map (db m267999) HM
Lake City — A City of Elegance
Lake City was founded in 1874 and soon became the center for one of the richest lead and silver mining areas in Colorado. The 1870s were peak years for growth in Lake City but unlike most mining . . . — — Map (db m153323) HM
Every drop of water has a destiny.
From its pristine headwaters, approximately
fifty miles west of Creede, the Rio Grande
travels 1,885-miles through three states
on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico.
The mighty Rio Grande humbly . . . — — Map (db m160576) HM
While in Saguache in 1874, Alfred Packer was arrested on murder charges involving cannibalism. He escaped, but was caught, tried twice, sentenced to forty years in prison, and later pardoned. Though Packer was not incarcerated in the Saguache . . . — — Map (db m268123) HM
The StagecoachBunker Hill Station, established not far from here in 1876, anchored the last bastion of the Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company. Railroads had supplanted most of the company's routes in the San Luis Valley by the . . . — — Map (db m267988) HM
As you travel the Silver Thread Scenic Byway, through the heart of the San Juan
Mountains, watch for wildlife. Elk, moose, mule deer, and bighorn sheep can be found along streams or rivers or in open meadows. Look near a forest edge or on a . . . — — Map (db m153324) HM
