A rincón is a grass meadow. The term is in wide use in English in the southwest United States, where it refers specifically to a sloping (usually steep) meadow on the south facing upper slopes of a forested mountain. These characteristic high meadows are formed by the repeated freezing and thawing of snow accumulations on south facing slopes, creating a habitat not conducive to forest. They are further maintained by a high frequency of low-intensity wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

. A notable example of a wildfire begun in a rincon, with catastrophic consequences, was the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire

Cerro Grande Fire

The Cerro Grande Fire was a disastrous forest fire in New Mexico, United States of America that occurred in May 2000. The fire started as a controlled burn, and became uncontrolled owing to high winds and drought conditions. Over 400 families in the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico lost their homes...

 in New Mexico, United States.

See also

• goat prairie
  Goat prairie
  Goat prairies, sometimes termed hill prairies, or dry prairies are found mainly along the valley of the Upper Mississippi River in the Driftless Area, but can occur elsewhere. Normally a variant of tallgrass prairie, they are found on south-southwest-facing slopes, which receive considerable winter...
  
  
• potrero
  Potrero (landform)
  A potrero is a long mesa that at one end slopes upward to higher terrain. This landform commonly occurs on the flanks of a mountain, as part of a dissected plateau....