The Borrego Pass plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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Borrego Pass’s center stands about 7,360 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,050 ft to 7,960 ft, a difference of 910 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hosta Butte, about 8,610 ft, 11 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Crevasse Canyon Formation (shale, sandstone), from the Late Cretaceous, 84 to 90 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 84 to 90 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 90 to 100 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 84 to 87 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 90 to 94 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 84 to 90 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mudstone, shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 87 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Borrego Pass reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio San Jose, the Rio Puerco and the Rio Grande: about 1,670 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Elephant Butte Reservoir and Caballo Reservoir.
760 miles of the trip are on the Rio Grande.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Borrego Pass; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
