Southwestern Tablelands

The Southwestern Tablelands are the broken canyon and mesa country along the edges of the High Plains, running from Pueblo and Trinidad in Colorado through Raton and Clayton in New Mexico into western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. Erosion has cut the flat tableland into breaks and draws, so soils are shallow and rocky where the plains above them are deep. Natives like Missouri primrose, foxglove penstemon, and blackfoot daisy are suited to that thin rocky ground and to a dry, windy, high-sun climate.

Conditions: Shallow rocky soils over sandstone and shale breaks, 13–20 inches of rain mostly in spring and summer storms, high wind, wide swings.

Cities and areas: Pueblo, Raton, Trinidad, Woodward, Childress, Clayton.