Sangre De Cristo Range

The Sangre de Cristo Range is a major subrange of the Rocky Mountains spanning southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States. It forms a steep, rugged eastern edge to the San Luis Valley and contains multiple high peaks and alpine basins.

Alpine hiking, technical mountaineering and backcountry skiing are major attractions; the range contains numerous high-elevation trails, cirque lakes and granite summits. Recreational routes reach well above timberline and lead to summits, ridgelines and remote alpine valleys.

The range includes some of Colorado’s fourteeners and other significant summits; Blanca Peak reaches 14,345 feet (4,374 metres). Land management is a mix of national forest and designated wilderness areas, protecting large tracts of high-country landscape.

Geographically the range extends from central-southern Colorado south into northern New Mexico, forming a visible mountainous spine within the southern Rockies and rising sharply above adjacent valleys and plains.

• High altitude caution: Highest summits exceed 14,000 feet, so altitude sickness and rapid weather changes are real hazards above treeline.
• Wilderness access: Large sections of the range are managed as designated wilderness or national-forest land, so many trails have limited services and require self-sufficiency.

What to See #

• Blanca Peak: Blanca Peak is the highest summit of the range at 14,345 feet (4,374 metres) and is a primary objective for high-altitude hikers and mountaineers.