San Antonio and Antonito

About San Antonio and Antonito

Antonito and San Antonio are 2 small towns in southern Colorado in Conejos County, in the San Luis Valley, with Antonito the larger of the two, sitting just 5 miles to the north-northeast of neighboring San Antonio. The two towns share the same zip code (81120) and their populations are combined and listed under Antonito by the United States Census, and noted as having 781 people living in the two towns as of the 2010 census, with most of them living in Antonito. Antonito started out as a sheep herding camp known as “San Antonio Junction” and was later renamed Antonito so it won’t be confused with nearby San Antonio, although other than for the locals, the confusion still exists. Antonito is the southern terminus of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad and the eastern terminus of the steam powered, narrow gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.

Sitting at an elevation of about 7,888 feet ( 2424 meters), Antonito and the nearby San Antonio experience a semi-arid, high-desert climate. Spring is breezy and transitional, summer is the warmest and wettest time of the year, autumn brings clear, pleasant days and crisp air and winters are cold and dry. The area receives around 14 inches (356 mm) of total precipitation annually, much of which arrives as late-summer monsoonal rain and winter snow. The 2 towns average about 41 inches (104 cm) of seasonal snow.