According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 20.7 square miles (54 km2), all land.

(Note that the CDP also includes several satellite communities such as Alteza, Belicia, Dos Griegos and La Paz.

[citation needed] Archaic Indians lived and hunted in the Eldorado area; archaeologists and others have found Clovis points, but little detailed information is available about these earliest settlers.

These settlements endured until about 1325, when a disastrous drought forced abandonment of what became the Eldorado area.

Some inhabitants probably moved to the Galisteo, New Mexico area, which itself was abandoned about 1450, as were all of the nearby pueblos except Pecos.

Formal archaeological investigations began about 1914 when Nels C. Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History partially excavated Pueblo Alamo (site LA-8),[7] near the present-day junction of I-25 with US-285.

AMREP proceeded to develop about 6,000 acres (24 km2) of their 27,000-acre (109 km2) purchase as Eldorado at Santa Fe, selling the first lots in 1972.

[citation needed] AMREP platted about 2700 lots in the original Eldorado subdivisions.

[8] There are an additional 20 or so newer subdivisions along U.S. Route 285, locally called the 285 Corridor, between Eldorado at Santa Fe and Lamy.

There is a bike/horse/walking trail alongside the railway that extends from the town of Lamy to the Railyard in Santa Fe.

The North Central Regional Transit District offers bus service between Eldorado and Santa Fe.

The Eldorado Arts and Crafts Association holds an annual studio tour each year, in mid-May.