Costilla County reaches from the Rio Grande to the Sangre de Cristo crest

Costilla County covers a big range of country, from valley floor near the Rio Grande up to high peaks along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A lot of that ground is public land, but “public land” is not one thing, and the rules change with who manages it.

Down in the valley and the lower hills, much of the public land is handled by the Bureau of Land Management out of its San Luis Valley field office. Higher up, the mountains include national forest and protected wilderness, managed by the Forest Service, where motorized travel and some uses are limited.

This matters because a lot of land here is also private, sometimes in large ranches, and the line between public and private is not always marked on the ground. Where you can hike, camp, hunt, cut firewood, or drive depends on which agency manages a spot and which unit it is. Wilderness, for example, has stricter rules than general BLM land.

Before heading out in Costilla County, check the managing agency’s maps and rules for that specific area: the BLM San Luis Valley Field Office for valley and foothill land, and the Rio Grande National Forest for the high country.