Earth from Space - Image Description

STS073-740-026 Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A. October 1995
A section of the northwest-southeast-trending, partially snow-covered Sangre de Cristo Mountains is featured in this photograph of south-central Colorado. Visible are Great Sand Dunes National Monument west of the range (top of photograph); Blanca Peak, the roughly circular, snow-covered peak [14 345 feet (4372 meters) above sea level] at the southern end of this section of the mountains; and San Luis Creek, the north-south-trending drainage feature to the west, within which lies dark San Luis Lake. The distinctive dendritic drainage pattern east of the range of mountains is part of the Huerfano River Basin that drains eastward, eventually flowing into the Arkansas River east of Pueblo.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.