Alamosa is the hub of the San Luis Valley, a vast high-desert basin ringed by mountains. The town serves as the gateway to Great Sand Dunes National Park, where North America's tallest dunes rise against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains—one of Colorado's most surreal landscapes.
Adams State University gives the town a college-town feel. The Rio Grande runs through the valley, supporting wildlife refuges and wetlands in this otherwise arid landscape. The valley floor sits at 7,500 feet with surprisingly extreme temperatures.
Alamosa isn't a tourist town—it's a working agricultural community that happens to be near a spectacular national park. Services are basic but adequate. The real draw is the landscape: dunes, mountains, wetlands, and wide-open high desert.