The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States; its main portion covers around 4,600 square miles (12,000 km2), encompassing much of northwestern New Mexico, southwest Colorado, and parts of Arizona and Utah.
The region is arid with rugged topography of plains and valleys interspersed by buttes, canyons and mesas. Its most striking features include Chaco Canyon (northwestern New Mexico, between Farmington and Santa Fe) and Chacra Mesa. The San Juan Basin also has uplands that exceed elevations of 9,800 feet (3,000 m). Drainage in the structural basin is general westward from the Continental Divide of the Americas to the Mancos River's confluence with the San Juan River. The San Juan River then continues to the Colorado River.
Read more about San Juan Basin: Geology
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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