Every region has its acronyms, shortcuts for referring to places. Creede and the surrounding area have SLV, San Luis Valley, as the abbreviation for where they are. The name infuses the valley. There’s the SLV REC, San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative (when asked what REC stood for at work I once said “regional electric cooperative), San Luis Valley Federal Bank (a business I’ve confused with the REC). There’s even a San Luis Valley Fly-In and Air Show.
Creede technically lies on the western edge of the San Luis Valley; not yet within a proper pass or canyon, but a relatively thin sliver of the valley sandwiched between Snowshoe Mountain to the south and several peaks to the north including Campbell and Mammoth Mountains. It certainly shares a lot with the valley, yet it’s removed enough that if you looked on Google Maps, as I did when I first was told that I’d likely have to fly to Alamosa, it looks like Creede is truly separate from SLV. The valley seems to start to end around Del Norte and disappear after South Fork as its enveloped by the green of the Rio Grande National Forest. At the same time we all share our 719 area codes and 811 zip codes and we all complain about rates at the REC going up!