Where is rio grande

Near the river's mouth, the heavily irrigated Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural region. In the s, the river marked the disputed border between Mexico and the nascent Republic of Texas; Mexico marked the border at the Nueces River. The disagreement provided part of the rationale for the US invasion of Mexico in , after Texas had been admitted as a new state.

As such, crossing the river was the escape route used by some Texas slaves to seek freedom. Mexico had liberal colonization policies and had abolished slavery in In the summer of , a foot m wide sandbar formed at the mouth of the river, marking the first time in recorded history that the Rio Grande failed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The sandbar was subsequently dredged, but it re-formed almost immediately.

Spring rains the following year flushed the re-formed sandbar out to sea, but it returned in the summer of About 3 million years ago, water draining from the San Juan Mountains of Colorado began carving the river that dissects New Mexico and, eventually, the west and southwest boundary of Texas and the Texas-Mexico border, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Rio Grande rises in high mountains and flows for much of its length at high elevation. In New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande Rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem in its floodplain.

But before that runoff settles down to a placid river, it rumbles through far northern New Mexico. The primary source is Canby Mountain, with its second, more distant source, being Pole Creek. Besides fishing, activities like camping, hiking, floating, rafting, bird-watching, and paddleboarding are just a few of the things you can do along the Rio Grande. Whitewater rafting is popular on some stretches of the river outside of Creede during the late spring and early summer.

One of the best areas to get inside the water is the river area near Alamosa, Colorado , which is often frequented by natives and college students at Adams State University during the summer months.