WHERE THE CATTLE AND THE BUFFALO ROAM
In central southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, where jagged canyons sweep down west from the 14,000-plus-foot Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains to the valley floor, sits the 103,000-acre Medano-Zapata Ranch. Bordering Great Sand Dunes National Park to the north, this raw but beautiful landscape is carpeted with greasewood (chico) and rabbitbrush, though in spring the runoff from snowmelt fills Medano and Sand creeks on either side of the dune field.
The ranch hosts several archaeological sites, and digs have uncovered the bones of buffalo slain by hunters more than 11,000 years ago. Spaniards were the first Europeans to settle the
