Jasper, Colorado

The Place

Up the Alamosa
River Valley

Jasper sits high in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, in the western corner of Rio Grande County. The road follows the Alamosa River up from the San Luis Valley floor and climbs into aspen and spruce.

The community was platted as a cabin subdivision in 1981 by Luke Anthony. It has grown slowly since. Today there are more than eighty cabins here, and the Jasper Association looks after the roads and common ground with a volunteer board and a seasonal caretaker.

How that came about is documented in the Anthony Collection, material from Luke and Luella Anthony gathered before they passed. Original sales material, pamphlets, lot photographs, draft contracts and film, showing how a mountain subdivision was actually sold in the early eighties.

That is only the recent half of it. There was a town in this valley in the 1800s, with mines, a gold rush and a federal townsite plat accepted in 1897, and the ground Luke Anthony platted had already been surveyed and worked once before. The Jasper Museum holds the record of it, including what are among the oldest surviving photographs of the town. It is worth an hour if you are the curious sort.

In Jasper, there is no store, no gas station and no cell service to speak of. That is most of the appeal.

The Alamosa River valley in autumn, aspens turning gold below the San Juan Mountains — The valley in late September

9,100 ft

Elevation

1981

Subdivision platted

80+

Cabins

Rio Grande

National Forest

Before You Come

Check These First

Most people drive a long way to get here. Conditions change fast at this elevation and the answers are spread across several agencies, so these are the links worth opening before you load the truck.

Fire Restrictions

Whether you can have a campfire depends on the current stage of restrictions, and it changed three times during the 2026 season. Always check the date on the notice.

Rio Grande NF restrictions

Weather and Snow

Forecasts from the valley floor are not much use up here. This is the point forecast for Jasper itself, which is a different world from Alamosa or Monte Vista.

National Weather Service

Forest Alerts and Closures

Road closures, active fires and area restrictions across the Rio Grande National Forest. Worth a look in spring and again in late fall.

Current forest alerts

Hunting and Fishing

Season dates, unit boundaries, licenses and the draw are all handled by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Check the current year rather than going from memory. For guided hunts and pack trips in this country, Cherokee TP Outfitters work the area.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Cherokee TP Outfitters

Property Owners

The Jasper Association handles roads, common property, water testing, gate codes and association business for cabin owners.

Jasper Association

Getting In

The road in is dirt and it is not always kind to a low car. After heavy rain or early snow, bring something with clearance and think about the drive back out. Download the map before you leave the pavement, because there is no signal to load one up here.

Jasper on Google Maps Rio Grande National Forest

This page is not an official source for any of the above. Every link goes to the agency that actually maintains the information, and their notice is the one that counts.

Land and Cabins

Buying In

Cabins and lots in Jasper come up for sale a few times a year. It is a small market and listings move slowly, so there is rarely much on at once. Most of what sells here changes hands through word of mouth or through agents in Del Norte and Monte Vista.

Anything you buy in the subdivision comes with Jasper Association membership, which covers the roads and common ground and carries annual dues. Cabins here are generally off grid or partly so, and access in winter is a real consideration rather than a detail.

See Listings on Zillow

That search covers Jasper and the Del Norte area. Listings are not always tagged to Jasper specifically, so it is worth widening the map once you are there.

A dirt forest road curving between aspens below a rock face on the way into Jasper — The road in

Photograph of the town of Jaspar in its valley, mounted in a Colorado School of Mines thesis and captioned by hand

The Jasper Museum

Things Worth
Keeping

Maps, photographs, records and accounts from around Jasper, gathered in one place and made public. Survey plats and mining claims. Stories from loggers and miners. Papers from the founding of the subdivision. Things nobody has scanned before.

If you have something from around here, the curator would like to hear about it.

Visit the Museum Contribute an Item

A Cards Wild deck standing in its 3D printed card holder on a wood table, the box front showing the elk engraving and the line Born in Jasper, Colorado 2007

The five trophy cards fanned out: grouse, rabbit, deer, elk and bear, numbered one to five and marked small game or big game

The Card Game That
Started Here

Cards Wild was made up in a cabin in Jasper in 2007. It began as something for a family to do in the evening when the weather turned and there was nothing else going on. The perfect gift for mountain or hunting enthusiasts.

Born in Jasper, Colorado. 2007. Printed on every card

It is a hunting game for two to four players, ages eight and up, and it runs twenty to forty minutes. Players race to collect five trophies while weather and hazards get in the way and everyone else tries to slow them down. Hunting isn't for everyone, so there are skiing, fishing and pirate plundering versions of the same game.

The animals are the ones that actually live here, and the hazards are the ones that actually happen here. Hunt genuine Jasper game and prevail through real Jasper conditions.

If you have a large enough screen, you can play the whole thing free in a browser. Physical decks are printed in America and come with a card holder.

Learn to Play Play Free Online Buy a Deck