Continental Divide

The rainfall the panel divides does not all stay divided. Under this same divide the Azotea Tunnel runs 12.8 miles, carrying water from the Navajo River, a San Juan tributary bound for the Colorado and the Pacific, south into Azotea Creek and on to the Rio Chama and the Rio Grande. Begun in 1964 and finished on November 11, 1970, it is the trunk of the San Juan-Chama Project, which has delivered about ninety thousand acre-feet a year eastward across the divide, the largest share to Albuquerque. Nothing of it shows from this pullout.

What the plaque says

Official Historic Scenic Marker Continental Divide Elevation-7,275 feet Rainfall divides at this point. To the west it drains into the Pacific Ocean...to the east into the Atlantic.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad — 8.6 mi
  A narrow-gauge steam railroad from Chama over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass to Antonito, kept narrow because nobody ever thought it worth converting.

More markers nearby

• Old Spanish Trail — 8.2 mi
• Chama — 8.6 mi
• Chama — 8.8 mi
• Jicarilla Apache (Tribe) — 14 mi