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Saguache, Colorado
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Saguache is the county seat of Saguache County,
Colorado. The population was 539 at the 2020 U.S. Census. Named by the Native
American Ute tribe, it's translation meaning "water at the blue earth", and
pronounced by the Utes as "sə wŭp;". But when the white settlers came to town,
they mispronounce it, and called it "suh-WATCH",and spelled it their own way. Yet the
close by Sawatch Mountains are spelled liked they sound in
English. This was because the early settlers wrote down
the Native name one way, while the U.S. Geological Survey officially adopted a more modernized, English-style phonetic spelling
for the name of the nearby mountains.
The town has an elevation of 7,792 feet (2,375 meters), and
is just barely inside the foothills of the San Juan Mountains, at the north end of the San Luis Valley. The town has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2), all of it land.
The area is known for its rock climbing, hunting, biking and hiking up
the many nearby mountain trails. Saguache is served by both U.S. Route 285
(north/south route) and Colorado State Highway 114, which heads up and over nearby North Pass (aka North Cochetopa Pass). Cochetopa Pass is also to the west
via Old Cochetopa Pass Road (aka County Road NN 14), a dirt and gravel road that
goes up and over the old pass. A fun drive, but you may not be able to head over it in
winter, as it could be closed because of heavy snows, and seasonal gate closures
are typically enforced from March 15 through mid-May or early June to protect
soft roadbeds and prevent severe damage to the route.
Saguache, features a semi-arid, high-desert climate characterized by warm, dry summers and short, freezing, and mostly sunny winters.
It doesn't get a lot of snow compared to other locations in Saguache County,
only 20.3 inches (52 cm) annually. It's annual liquid precip, mainly all rain, is also low
for the county, at 8.05 inches
(204 mm) per year. The reason for this is called "a double rain shadow" effect.
Saguache receives significantly less rain and snow than
Crestone, which
sits directly across the valley in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. But
Saguache is shielded by the two mountain ranges since it sits at a lower
elevation,
and also thanks to different wind directions in the 2 towns. The prevailing west
winds in Saguache doesn't produce any immediate mountainous lift like
Crestone sees, this creates the double rain shadow in Saguache.
CO 114 WB : 0.2 mi West of 8th St/US 285 Saguache
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