Where in Colorado are we?

Well, it's called Forbes Park.  

It has: 13,000 acres;  with 5,000 of "common land";  
and less than 4,000 lots......about 2 acres each.
But, with only 288 houses, there are very few people around.  

You can be alone.

So, where is this place?
South-central Colorado. 
37 degrees, 29 minutes N ; 105 degrees, 12 minutes W

See how the Rocky Mountains split, as they go from North to South?

We are on the eastern range, called the Sangre de Cristo mountains, at 9,370 feet elevation.

And just to our west is the San Luis Valley, with Ft Garland, and then the city of Alamosa.

The San Luis Valley is a "high desert", averaging 7,800 feet elevation,
and has the Great San Dunes National Monument. 

Can you imagine this: sand dunes right next to mountains and no sea around? 
It's the wind that carries tiny particles of dirt form the valley; 
but it doesn't have enough strength to carry it over the eastern mountain range, 
so it drops down as sand.

Really cool! 

And, if you look at the map, do you see all the rivers in that valley? 
This is the valley through which the Rio Grande river flows, after originating on the western mountains, the San Juan Mt range.
All those little streams and rivers collect snow-melt form the two bordering mountain ranges 
and feed the Rio Grande.

The Rio Grande then flows through NM, by Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and then to El Paso, where it makes the border with Mexico...all the way to Brownsville and the Gulf of Mexico.
It's not wide but it is quite long. That's why the call it Grande.

Anyway, we are now nearly 1,800 miles "up the river" from where I grew up.
It's been a great journey getting here, even if it's taken 40 years from the days by the Gulf of Mexico.


We'll continue to show more pics in the next few blogs. And we bet you'll wish you were here, too!
We'll start by telling you that it's 50 degrees and the high today will be 73.

Y'all come!