Located in the Southern end of the San Luis Valley (Conejos County), La Jara is a quite laid-back community that is a perfect place to escape big city life. Situated midway between Alamosa and the New Mexico State line, we have a vast backyard that hosts everything from fishing, hunting, camping and other outdoor activities. Our surrounding rivers (Conejos and Rio Grande) make La Jara an excellent place to reside if you enjoy the great outdoors. We are located approximately 30 miles from the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The pace of life in our community means there is more time for family and unlimited adventures in the San Juan Mountains. The community is served by North Conejos School District and provides students with a great educational experience. La Jara is the perfect place to call home.

Heaven among anglers, the high-desert San Luis Valley of La Jara is home to a ginormous web of more than 1,400 rivers, streams, reservoirs and lakes, including the beloved Rio Grande River, which is fed by the surrounding snow-capped peaks. Of those waterways, the Rio Grande River, a siren call to anglers, embodies one of the longest stretchs of Gold Medal Water that the Centennial State can offer.

To qualify for Gold Medal status, the water must produce a minimum of a dozen quality trout—measuring at least 14 inches—per acre. This healthy ecosystem delivers 60 pounds of standing stock—the amount of living organisms in the ecosystem, including fish, plant life, and micro invertebrates—per acre. The designation only applies to water that is accessible to the public.

The Rio Grande and other waterways near La Jara support five major species of fish, including rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, cutthroat trout, and Rio Grande cutthroat.

The Rio Grande, known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio Grande is 1,896 miles. It originates in south-central Colorado, in the United States, and flows 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, flows through the state of New Mexico then forming the border between the U.S. state of Texas and Mexico. Rising as a clear, snow-fed mountain stream more than 12,000 feet above sea level in the Colorado 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 at Brownsville, Texas. The total length of the river is about 1,900 miles.