Mancos is located in the Mancos River valley at an elevation of approximately . The Mancos River was named by Spanish explorers ("Rio de los Mancos" - "River of the Sleeve") perhaps for the way the river, which rises in the La Plata Mountains northeast of Mancos, drains the valley and then flows into the narrow confines of Weber Canyon and Mancos Canyon, southwest of Mesa Verde, where it joins the San Juan River. The town's skyline is dominated by the mass of Mesa Verde to the west, Menefee Mountain to the southeast, and the La Plata Mountains, a range to the east and northeast, in which the headwaters of the Mancos River originate.