Some of the rock art may be as old as 8,000 years and some are so new that they depict horses which arrived in the Southwest with the Spanish in the 16th century. The marks of ancient American Indians are found in the Grassland in petroglyphs on many of the rocks and cliff faces in the canyons. Tarantulas are often seen crossing the road because they’re easy to pick out on the pavement. īeginning around the start of September, male tarantulas in the park will leave their burrows to search for females, which are in their own holes. Three hundred and twenty-eight species of birds, including many Eastern birds at the limit of their range, have been recorded in Baca County where most of the Carrizo unit is located. Wildlife on the grassland includes pronghorn, prairie dogs, lesser prairie chickens, mule deer, elk, wild turkey, golden eagle, swift fox, and infrequent roadrunners. A few ponderosa pines are found on cool, moist hillsides. Chickasaw plum and fragrant mimosa are occasional on uplands within grass cover. Western soapberry and netleaf hackberry are common in some areas near canyon bottoms, as well as some larger Gambel oak. Vegetation is mostly steppe and shortgrass prairie, although pinyon and juniper trees are found in rocky canyons and cottonwoods and willows grow near streams. Summer temperatures are hot with the average high above 90 ☏ (32 ☌) winters are cold with average low temperatures in January below 20 ☏ (−7 ☌). Average annual precipitation on the grassland ranges from 12 inches (300 mm) at La Junta to 17 inches (430 mm) at Springfield. The Timpas Unit is in the watershed of the Purgatoire River, also called the Purgatory and Picketwire River.Įlevations on the grassland range from 3,900 feet (1,190 m) in the southeastern corner of the Carrizo Unit on the Oklahoma border to 6,200 feet (1,890 m) on Fallas Mesa in the northwestern part of the same unit. Most of the Carrizo Unit is in the watershed of Carrizo Creek, a tributary of the Cimarron River. Both units have privately owned tracts of ranchland mixed in with the government-owned land. The grassland is administered by the Forest Service together with the Pike and San Isabel National Forests, and the Cimarron National Grassland, from common headquarters located in Pueblo, Colorado.Ĭomanche National Grassland consists of 463,373 acres (187,520 ha) in two units: (1) Timpas, south of La Junta, and (2) Carrizo, south of Springfield. It is separated into two sections, each operated by a local ranger district, one of which is in Springfield and the other of which is in La Junta. It is the sister grassland of Cimarron National Grassland and contains both prairie grasslands and canyons. You’ll never know it’s here until you come.Rourke Ranch Historic District, located on the Comanche National Grassland near La JuntaĬomanche National Grassland is a National Grassland located in southeastern Colorado, United States. I lived for the canyons, I love this.Ĭomanche National Grassland. Here we connect with the secret marvels of nature and history right in our backyard. We try to pick it up and keep this as nice as it was when we found it. This is an area that can be damaged so easily. Going up along the cliff sides you can find a lot of pictographs and just old cave paintings that have been here since who knows when. Where prehistoric sea beds defined an area from just south of La Junta all the way to the Southeastern Colorado border, where the remains of abandoned homesteads testify to the crippling drought of the Dust Bowl era, and where public efforts have transformed the land again into a place of conservation and recreation. This is where I spent most of my childhood growing up, just hiking, swimming, just everything. Part museum, part playground, all built by nature, preserved by those who love it. Over a thousand dinosaur tracks, 40 miles of wagon ruts and pioneer homesteads from the Santa Fe Trail. A land of natural wonders brimming with tales from the past. Canyons, rivers and prairie, abundant with life.
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