Rio Grande Rift Valley
Santa Fe County New Mexico
Photo by Mark Nohl
The valley, a vast, irregular structural depression known as a graben, defines the distant landscapes about Santa Fe. The N-S lines of two major mountain chains sandwich the Rio Grande's southward flow past La Bajada, a significant land form.
The surrounding mountains provide watersheds, determine stream flow and direction, and moderate the N Chihuhuan Desert weather (rainfall and snowfall especially), which lend themselves to the attractiveness of Santa Fe as the city at the end of the Santa Fe Trail.
- View the Google Map for this site (lat-long decimal degrees, NAD27) 35.74337 -106.13993
- U.S. Forest Service
- 517 Gold Ave. SW
- Albuquerque, NM 87102
- Phone: (505)842-3898
- Fax: (505)842-3800
- www.fs.fed.us/
