DENVER — Starting 160 miles southwest of Denver, where the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountain ranges part ways at Poncha Pass, the San Luis Valley spreads out 65 miles from east to west, plus another 120 miles south to the New Mexico border.
Here in the world’s largest alpine valley, visitors will take in the fields of potatoes, alfalfa and barley, and they’ll visit protected lands, from Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve to three wetland-covered national wildlife refuges.
And at some point on their way in or out of the high desert, they might also decide to go to the movies. This summer, a circa-1955 drive-in theater located outside of Center lit up its roadside sign and 80-foot screen after nearly four decades of darkness.
