The Ranchos de Taos 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.
Chance of showers
Mostly sunny; warmer
Mostly sunny
Showers likely
Chance of showers; cooler
Partly cloudy; warmer
Chance of showers
Ranchos de Taos’s center stands about 6,980 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,740 ft to 8,020 ft, a difference of 1,280 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Vallecito Mountain, about 12,590 ft, 14 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Piedmont alluvial deposits (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, limestone, dolostone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Basalt, andesite. Age: Pliocene, 2.6 to 5.3 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.4 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Ranchos de Taos reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio Grande del Rancho, the Rio Fernando de Taos and the Rio Grande: about 1,680 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 Ranchos de Taos; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
