South Fork (Colorado)

Rio Grande County

08-72395

South Fork is a small town in Rio Grande County in the south of the U.S. state of Colorado, close to the Mineral County.

South Fork is above 2500 m ( 8180 feet exactly ) high in the San Luis Valley at the confluence of the South Fork Rio Grande in the Rio Grande and has 386 inhabitants ( as of 2010). The area is already due to the altitude relatively sparse. The annual rainfall is 400 mm, mostly as snow in winter. The place has over 300 sunny days a year. The city is accessible from U.S. Highway 160, since 1999 South Fork is the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad line. The nearest airport is 25 km to the east in Del Norte.

The village was founded in 1882 from an existing stagecoach station in the construction of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad after Creede, Colorado that was built for the local silver mines. It was only in April 1992, it was registered as an independent authority on the type of town, making it one of the youngest independent communities of Colorado. Originally based on the economy of the town of forestry and mining, now lives the community from tourism. The place is almost completely surrounded by the Rio Grande National Forest, a National Forest under the management of the U.S. Forest Service. The headwaters of the Rio Grande is a popular destination for rafting, the forests have hiking and mountain bike trails. The State Highway 149 is reported west of South Fork as Silver Thread Scenic Byway, he follows an old stagecoach route and the disused railway since 1999 through the mountains to the historic Wagon Wheel Gap, a water gap in the volcanic rocks of the San Juan Mountains.