The San Juan River is a 383 mile long major tributary of the Colorado River and a primary drainage for the Four Corners.
Shiprock (Tsé Bitʼaʼí, "rock with wings") is a 27 million year old volcanic rock formation, designated as a National Natural Landmark, rising 1,583 feet above the desert.
The eggs and hoodoos in the Bisti Wilderness were formed in sand and silt revealed 73 million years ago when the Western Interior Seaway receded.
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness (Bisti Badlands) is a 45,000-acre wilderness area full of rock formations made of sandstone, shale, mudstone, and silt.
Angel Peak Scenic Area is located 15 miles south of Bloomfield in San Juan County, with over 10,000 acres of rugged terrain, badlands and deep canyons.
The Aztec Ruins National Monument, on 318 acres, consists of dwellings and sacred structures built by Ancient Pueblo Indians in the 12th and 13th Centuries.
The La Plata Mountains, seen from San Juan County, are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in sw Colorado, and includes Hesperus Mountain at 13,332 feet.
Navajo Lake is a 3800 feet long and 400 feet deep reservoir located in northeastern San Juan County, created from a dam completed in 1962.

Traffic Crashes & Fatalities

Substance Use

Traffic Fatalities

In 2021, there were 32 fatalities, 11 of these (34%) in crashes that involved alcohol. By comparison, alcohol was involved in 24% of New Mexico traffic crash fatalities.
Traffic Fatalities in Alcohol-Involved Crashes
Of the 32 traffic fatalities
11 were in alcohol-involved crashes

Trends, Traffic Crash Fatalities

Alcohol-involved traffic crash fatalities decreased dramatically through 2009, but have been gradually increasing since then. After a dip in 2020, the overall number of traffic fatalities increased somewhat in 2021, although alcohol-related traffic fatalities did not.

Trends, Alcohol-Involved Traffic Crashes

While there has been marked improvement, San Juan County is among the five worst counties in New Mexico for rates of alcohol-involved motor vehicle crashes.

There has been a gradual decline in the number of alcohol-involved traffic crashes, decreasing from 302 crashes with alcohol-impaired drivers in 2001, to 149 in 2020. Crashes involving alcohol-impaired underage drivers (under age 21) have decreased significantly from a peak of 45 in 2004 to 19 in 2020.

Alcohol-Involved Crashes with Drivers Under Age 21

Males are more likely to be the driver in an underage alcohol-involved crash compared to females. Overall, the number of alcohol-involved crashes with underage drivers has significantly decreased, from 45 in 2004 to 19 in 2020.

Crash Severity

Alcohol-involved crashes are proportionally more severe, that is, are more likely to involve a fatality or injury. In 2019 of the 188 alcohol-involved crashes; 8.5% of them (16) were fatal crashes and 41.5% involved an injury. The same year, there were 1,770 non-alcohol involved crashes; 0.6% of them (11) were fatal and 29.7% involved injury.
Sources for alcohol-involved crashes are the Community Reports for San Juan County, New Mexico Department Transportation, Traffic Safety; published in collaboration with UNM Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS):
https://gps.unm.edu/tru/crash-reports/community-reports.

Fatalities data are from the New Mexico Dept of Transportation Monthly Traffic Fatality Reports: https://gps.unm.edu/tru/crash-reports/fatality-reports

DWI data and comparison rates were drawn from the NMDOT New Mexico DWI Reports: https://gps.unm.edu/tru/crash-reports/annual-dwi-reports

National statistics for alcohol-involvement, available for 2018: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812864
An alternative rate for traffic crash data is 100M VMT (vehicle miles traveled), which takes into account distances traveled relative to crashes. San Juan Couny has a rate of 8.3 alcohol-involved crashes per 100M VMT, compared to New Mexico's rate pf 7.7.
© 2022 San Juan County Partnership, Inc. All Rights Reserved.