The extensive lowland south of here is the Galisteo Basin, a sag in the earth’s crust where rock layers are depressed and thickened. It is one of the northernmost basins in the Basin and Range province in New Mexico and is bordered by the Rocky Mountains immediately to the north. These foothills and the higher glaciated peaks to the north are the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains. This particular segment, known as the Sangre de Cristo, rises above 13,000 feet in a chain of peaks that trends from Santa Fe on the south to Salida, Colorado, on the north.