The Playas Valley is a lengthy and narrow 60-mi (97-km) long,

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

located in

Hidalgo County, New Mexico Hidalgo County () is the southernmost county of the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,178. The county seat and largest city is Lordsburg. A bill creating Hidalgo from the southern part of Grant County was p ...

in the Bootheel Region; the extreme south of the valley lies in Chihuahua.

Playas, New Mexico Playas is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 74. History It is a former company town, named after a nearby former settlement along the Southern Pacific ...

is located in the northeast. The valley is noteworthy for the Playas Lake, a

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa (), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkalin ...

in the north. The

Continental Divide of the Americas The Continental Divide of the Americas (also known as the Great Divide, the Western Divide or simply the Continental Divide; ) is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from t ...

forms its western border in a series of three linear

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

s, and the divide forms the

water divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

as the northern border of the Playas Valley. The valley disappears southward into regions of the northwest Chihuahuan Desert of Chihuahua,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Regions of the desert extend northward to foothills of various mountain ranges, canyons,

wash Wash or the Wash may refer to: Industry and sanitation * WASH or WaSH, "water, sanitation and hygiene", three related public health issues * Wash (distilling), the liquid produced by the fermentation step in the production of distilled beverages ...

es, or other landforms.

Description

The Playas Valley is linear, and north–south trending and surrounded by mountain ranges, except on the south, where the flatlands merge into the Chihuahuan Desert. ''West'' *

Pyramid Mountains The Pyramid Mountains are a 30 mi (48 km) long, mountain range in central-east Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The city of Lordsburg and Interstate 10 lie at its northern border. The range lies between the northeast corner of the north– ...

Animas Mountains The Animas Mountains are a small mountain range in Hidalgo County, within the " Boot-Heel" region of far southwestern New Mexico, in the United States. Location They extend north–south for about 30 miles (50 km) along the Continental Div ...

San Luis Mountains The San Luis Mountains are a small, lower elevation mountain range of central-southern Pima County Arizona adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border, northeast of Sasabe, Arizona–Sasabe, Sonora. The range is northwest-southeast trending, about in le ...

''East'' *

Little Hatchet Mountains Little Hatchet Mountains is a mountain range in Hidalgo and Grant Counties, New Mexico. The range trends north and south between Hatchita Valley to the east and Playas Valley The Playas Valley is a lengthy and narrow 60-mi (97-km) long, valley ...

* Big Hatchet Mountains *

Alamo Hueco Mountains The Alamo Hueco Mountains are a long mountain range, located in the southeast of the New Mexico Bootheel region, southeast Hidalgo County, New Mexico, adjacent to the border of Chihuahua state, Mexico. The range lies near the southern end of th ...

Playas Lake and the valley

Much of the drainage into Playas Valley does not end in a playa or dry lake. In the southern half to two thirds of the valley, the valley has mostly dry washes that do not reach the valley flatlands.

Playas Lake Playas Lake is a dry lake or playa in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. It lies at an elevation of . It consists of a long dry lake running north northwest south southeast within the Playas Valley between the Animas Mountains on the west ...

is a linear dry lake, about 10 mi long, and only 4 mi west of Playas, New Mexico. An even smaller dry lake, about a tenth the size is just adjacent southwards. Both dry lakes are in the north, with the drainage coming from the continental divide as the perimeter of the valley, going north, then due west, then south as the southern ridgeline of the

. The divide makes up the southern region of the mountains, before it skirts lower peaks before reaching the north of the

. Playas Lake as the lowest elevation of the north valley region is in elevation.

References

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External links

Playas Lake, Playas Lake Fishing in Hidalgo County (coordinates, elevation)
Great Divide of North America New Mexico Bootheel Landforms of Hidalgo County, New Mexico Valleys of New Mexico Valleys of Mexico Landforms of Chihuahua (state)