The Santa Fe River is river in Santa Fe and

Sandoval Sandoval is a habitational surname of Spanish language, Spanish origin. It primarily originates from Sandoval de la Reina, Spain, earlier called ''Sannoval'', which is a blend word of Latin ''saltus'' (meaning 'grove' or 'wood') and Latin ''novalis ...

counties in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, United States, that is a tributary of the Rio Grande.

Description

The river starts in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and passes through the state capital, Santa Fe providing approximately 40% of the city's water supply. It is an intermittent stream with two perennial reaches. The river is long. It was first dammed in 1881 and flows when water is released by the city of Santa Fe from two continuous reservoirs. The site of the 1881 dam, upstream of Santa Fe, is now part of the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, a trailhead for the Dale Ball Foothill Trail System. The Santa Fe River Watershed is , ranging in elevations between to . The environmental group American Rivers designated the Santa Fe River as America's most endangered river of 2007, and Santa Fe Mayor David Coss made reviving the river one of his administration's top priorities.

Santa Fe River Trail

As of 2007, the Santa Fe River Trail existed in short segments, within Santa Fe (city) and

Santa Fe County Santa Fe County ( es, Condado de Santa Fe; meaning ''Holy faith'' in Spanish) is located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 144,170, making it New Mexico's third-most populous county, after Bernalillo Cou ...

, and the city and county developed plans to link those segments. The initial push was to develop the trail from the city downstream; this was the corridor of the historic

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro ( en, Royal Road of the Interior Land), also known as the Silver Route, was a Spanish road between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo (''Ohkay Owingeh''), New Mexico, USA, that was used from 1598 to 1882. It was ...

, which approached Santa Fe from downstream via the Santa Fe River Canyon below the east rim of the

Caja del Rio Caja del Rio (Spanish: " box of the river") is a dissected plateau, of volcanic origin, which covers approximately 84,000 acres of land in northern Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States. The region is also known as the Caja, Caja del Rio Pl ...

. The paraje on the Camino Real before Santa Fe was in La Cienega, at what is now El Rancho de las Golondrinas. From Patrick Smith Park to NM 599 the trail will eventually stretch 13 miles point-to-point. In the spring of 2012 construction was completed on a new 1.3 mi section of the trail from Camino Alire west to Frenchy's Field Park. The work through this section includes extensive rehabilitation of the riverbed, significant erosion protection structures, and the addition of hundreds of cottonwood saplings and willows along the entire 1.3 mi stretch.Santa Fe River Trail Corridor Updates
/ref> Further west on the county-managed stretch of the river, two orphan sections of the trail wait to be connected to the existing system. One section extends west for a mile beginning at the Community Farm at San Ysidro crossing. The other extends north and west from Agua Fria and Dominguez Lane toward the Municipal Recreation Center on Caja del Rio Rd.

Tributary arroyos

The arroyos of Santa Fe drain the Santa Fe area into the river.

Notes

American Rivers 2007 Report

References

External links