This page in our free multimedia library features aerial photos of the Rio Grande and San Luis Valley in southern Colorado.
The Rio Grande begins in the San Juan Mountains and travels some 1,900 miles through Colorado, New Mexico and along the border between Texas and Mexico. This portion of the flight includes the terrain around South Fork, Del Norte, Alamosa and Manassa.
The San Luis Valley covers about 8,000 square miles and has an average elevation of about 7,500 feet. The climate is relatively dry, but irrigated agriculture is possible thanks to diversions from the Rio Grande and groundwater pumping.
For more on the San Luis Valley, see this page, which compiles stories about the region that The Water Desk has republished since 2019. This page has stories related to the Rio Grande.
Our free multimedia library also contains photos of the Rio Grande farther upstream, near its headwaters, and drone-captured photos/videos of the Rio Grande Gorge in northern New Mexico. We also have additional drone imagery of the Rio Grande in New Mexico near the Taos Junction Bridge, San Antonio and Fort Craig.
| Date | May 23, 2024 |
| Location | San Luis Valley, Colorado (map) |
| Credit | Mitch Tobin/The Water Desk with aerial support by LightHawk |
| Rights | Free to reuse under Creative Commons license. |
Selected images from the gallery
Click to enlarge
To use these images
Please read and consent to the terms and license below for access to the download page.
To help us continue to offer this free material, we ask that you please:
- Credit the original photographer and the Water Desk as the source
- Email us a link to the published story at waterdesk@colorado.edu
- Consider sending The Water Desk your ideas for future content that we could add to the library
- Keep supporting professional photojournalists by hiring them for assignments
