MEET YOURSELF AND OTHER WONDERFUL SENTIENT BEINGS

The Baca Grande encompasses approximately 14,000 acres at 8,000 ft (2,438 m) on the western edge of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness and the eastern edge of the Rio Grande geological rift in the San Luis Valley. Our community is largely surrounded by federal lands, serving as a gateway-host to the Baca National Wildlife Refuge (BNWR - USFWS), the Rio Grande National Forest and Sangre de Cristo Wilderness (USFS), Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (NPS, an International Dark Sky Park), as well as the Town of Crestone (an International Dark Sky Community), Colorado College’s Baca Campus, and multiple internationally renowned spiritual centers. 

The Baca is positioned between the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and the high-elevation valley floor where rabbitbrush and native grasses transition to pinyon-juniper woodlands, in what is referred to as a hydrological recharge zone. Four creeks beautifully meander through The Baca Grande community from the mountains above, recharging the aquifers below and sustaining riparian corridors: South Crestone Creek, Willow Creek, Spanish Creek, and Cottonwood Creek. These four creeks feed our neighboring Baca National Wildlife Refuge's many riparian areas and provide the arid San Luis Valley with “precious surface  water [while] replenishing an expansive underground reservoir" (USGS Hydrology of the San Luis Valley). These creeks, whose flow is derived from snowmelt within 4,700 square miles of high-elevation watershed, are quite literally lifeblood from the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range supporting our community and its rare ecological systems. The Baca Grande and surrounding areas are home to a diversity of rare species, plant communities, and habitats; including American elk, sandhill cranes, Rio Grande suckers (a state of Colorado endangered species), Rio Grande chub (a state of Colorado threatened species), spiderflower (Cleome multicaulis), shrublands, grasslands, wet meadows, springs, forests, and there’s even records of Bison antiquus (Nature Conservancy). Our community is also home to a unique and “vulnerable narrowleaf cottonwood and Rocky Mountain juniper woodland plant community” (Colorado National Heritage Program, Baca Grande Biological Assessment, 2005). Together, we serve as caretakers of this unique environment, the riparian corridors, and the critical life supporting watershed.

“Indigenous inhabitants of the area include the Ute while nomadic groups of Capote and Comanche people traveled through the land. In 1823, Mexico granted 600,000 acres of land to Juan Maria Cabeza de Baca. This grant was made in an effort to secure claims against the governments of Texas and the United States. In 1860, the Luis Maria Baca Grant Number Four became what is now The Baca Grande. When gold was discovered in the area, the [neighboring] town of Crestone was born” (Colorado College).

In addition to its storied history, remote location (with limited outside support), and unique environment, The Baca Grande Association itself is unique in its diverse nature, scope, and mission. Among the Association’s many privately funded missions is the core purpose to provide for the health, safety, and well-being of its member-citizens within its portion of unincorporated Saguache County. This includes 24/7/365 ambulance services, a fire department (including structural & wildland fire protection, and a fire mitigation team), as well as a roads & maintenance department with a municipal-style fleet of heavy equipment to maintain ~90 miles of dirt roads within the Community.

The Baca is also a supporter of the SLV GO! Sangre de Cristo Dark Sky Coalition and, as an “at-risk” Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) community, we are an active member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Firewise USA program. Guidelines and recommendations from both programs are incorporated throughout the Community’s Design Guidelines.