The range runs approximately north to south from U.S. Highway 50 to Walsenburg a distance of more than 40 miles (64 km).

The range is up to about 12 miles (19 km) wide and is bordered on the east by the Great Plains and on the west by the Wet Mountain Valley.

To the west the adjacent Wet Mountain Valley contains the small towns of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff.

Other towns/communities in the small range include Beulah and Rosita, which is now a ghost town after a period of gold and silver mining over the past two centuries.

The core of the range consists of Precambrian granitic rocks with Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata in fault contact around the southern end and in the northwest.