The Mountain Archive

From special moments in the forest and with nature’s creatures that fill the mountain’s narrative, to on-the-ground site visits, watershed education, oral history interviews and archival work, The Mountain Archive serves collaboration, restoration, and creative focus connecting ecology and its people across the ancestral homelands of the Culebra sub range of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Based from offices at North Headquarters of Cielo Vista Ranch in the heart of the Culebra watershed, a Library, Reading Room and meeting area include space for committee work, local history study, regional educational materials and media production alongside a growing collection of digitized resources.

Generous support of this project is made possible by Cielo Vista Ranch and its Staff. Your participation toward a collaborative future is welcomed at this time. Please reach out to themountainarchive at gmail and connect with us through La Pajarita News, Instagram, or YouTube.

Waning crescent.

Winter snowpack provides critical slow storage that releases water steadily come spring and summer. Sangre de Cristo snowpack has been consistently below average this season. The mountain SNOTEL site at 10’800 reports 18 inches total depth with the snow water equivalent about 27% of “normal” for this date.

Local, regional, and statewide partners visited Cielo Vista Ranch throughout 2025 to learn about some of its historic structures in partnership with the Mellon Foundation and History Colorado’s “Heritage for All” initiative. In 2026, the ranch and community will look toward preserving important structures with an emphasis on educational opportunities. The Ranch’s Education Committee will begin meeting quarterly in 2026. If you’d like to be part of this group, or to learn more, please email Kate at kperdoni@cathexis.com or themountainarchive@gmail.com Attn: Education.

The Jicarilla Apache, an Athabaskan Indigenous people, have maintained a deep, enduring connection to their ancestral homelands since long before European contact. Their traditional territory spans parts of what is now southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, including what is now Cielo Vista Ranch. Today our mountains are still shaped by sacred relationships with the land's rivers, mountains, seasons, and ecology in a landscape that tribal elders describe through plant medicinal practices, origin stories, arts, and ecological knowledge that emphasize harmony with nature and the sacred four directions. In this video, a Sun Prayer is told by Bryan Vigil of the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

Coffee brewing and snow falling at HQ ❄️☕️

A golden eagle joins a gust of wind overhead.

🪵🔥🪾❄️🦌🌲🏔️

The Mountain; a construct and majesty experienced each day by those who live and strive and work here. May it be more apparent to more and more people, what is going on.

🌊🪨🌊 The Culebra flows winter long.

Good morning! ☀️ The silence and insulation of snow cover on the mountain are profound- gentle and powerful all at once, resting, cleansing and strengthening the land in its promise toward spring. ❄️ May winter nourish these grounds in its healing peace. 🏔️ To sign up for our newsletter, and for general questions or clarifications, email us at themountainarchive@gmail.com.

Winter snowpack provides critical slow storage that releases water steadily come spring and summer. Sangre de Cristo snowpack has been consistently below average this season. The mountain SNOTEL site at 10’800 reports 18 inches total depth with

The Jicarilla Apache, an Athabaskan Indigenous people, have maintained a deep, enduring connection to their ancestral homelands since long before European contact. Their traditional territory spans parts of what is now southern Colorado and northern

A golden eagle joins a gust of wind overhead.

the mountain archive on youtube

The Mountain Archive on YouTube is a library of learning documentaries and storytelling from local residents, including a growing collection of oral histories, documentaries and videos from our mountain’s first people.

the archives

Existing resources and research materials regarding early land and water history are being digitized in a years-long project including maps, photos and historic records. To contribute documents or stories, email themountainarchive at gmail dot com.