The Ruidoso Downs 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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Ruidoso Downs’s center stands about 6,440 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,220 ft to 7,790 ft, a difference of 1,570 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sierra Blanca Peak, about 11,920 ft, 13 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Yeso Formation (sandstone, carbonate, evaporite), from the Permian, 273 to 290 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 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.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Andesite, dacite. Age: Late Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 38 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 100 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granitic, syenitic. Age: Eocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 56 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic, anhydrite, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 273 million years old. About 0.3 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 Ruidoso Downs reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio Ruidoso, the Rio Hondo, the Pecos and the Rio Grande: about 1,310 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Red Bluff Reservoir and Lake McMillan.
410 miles of the trip are on the Pecos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Ruidoso Downs; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
