The principal tributaries of the Rio Grande are the Pecos, Devils, Chama, and Puerco rivers in the United States and the Conchos, Salado, and San Juan in Mexico. Along the remainder of its course the river wanders sluggishly across the Gulf Coastal Plain to end in a fertile delta where it joins the Gulf of Mexico.Ī River Runs Through It: Fact or Fiction? Shortly before entering the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Rio Grande cuts three canyons between 1,500 and 1,700 feet (460 and 520 metres) in depth across the faulted area occupied by the “big bend,” where the Texas side of the river comprises the Big Bend National Park. There, declining elevation, decreasing latitude, and increasing aridity and temperature produce a transition from a cold steppe climate with a vegetation of piñon pine, juniper, and sagebrush to a hot steppe and desert climate characterized by mesquite, creosote bush, cactus, yucca, and other desert plants. Its early course follows a canyon through forests of spruce, fir, and aspen into the broad San Luis Valley in Colorado, after which it cuts the Rio Grande Gorge and White Rock Canyon of northern New Mexico and enters the open terrain of the Basin and Range and Mexican Plateau physiographic provinces. Physical featuresįrom its sources in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, the Rio Grande flows to the southeast and south for 175 miles (280 km) in Colorado, southerly for about 470 miles (760 km) across New Mexico, and southeasterly for about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the Gulf of Mexico. Because a large proportion of the river’s basin is arid or semiarid, however, only about half of the total area, or about 176,000 square miles (456,000 square km), actually contributes to the river’s flow. The area within the entire watershed of the Rio Grande is some 336,000 square miles (870,000 square km). The total length of the river is about 1,900 miles (3,060 km). Rising as a clear, snow-fed mountain stream more than 12,000 feet (3,700 metres) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains, the Rio Grande descends across steppes and deserts, watering rich agricultural regions as it flows on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Rio Grande, Spanish Río Grande del Norte, or (in Mexico) Río Bravo, or Río Bravo del Norte, fifth longest river of North America, and the 20th longest in the world, forming the border between the U.S.
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