The Galisteo Basin drains the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, shares its northern drainage divide (height of land) with the Santa Fe Basin and its eastern drainage divide with the Pecos Basin. To the west it is bounded by the Rio Grande, and to the south by the drainage divide with the Estancia Basin, by the Ortiz Mountains. and the drainage divide with the Arroyo de la Vega de la Tanos, which flows off the western slopes of the Ortiz Mountains.