NEW MEXICO STATE PARKS
by The Editors
New Mexico is blessed with a wealth of natural resources and perhaps most important is the abundance of sites with outstanding scenic and recreational facilities. The contrasts apparent in the mosaic of New Mexico are also seen in the pattern of its state parks. They range from desert regions with sparse and exotic flora and fauna to the high mountain canyons choked with Douglas fir and aspen where even in the summer evenings one huddles close to the fire for warmth. And the mosaic shifts from waterless areas amid geologic wonders to wide expanses of open water well stocked with trout. The parks are administered by the New Mexico State Park and Recreation Commission. Wherever possible, areas have been set aside for the permanent enjoyment of the people of New Mexico and their visitors.
Bottomless Lakes State Park
Bottomless Lakes State Park, established in 1936, was one of the first of the New Mexico state parks. It is surprising to find this treasure of great natural beauty in an area so dominated by aridity. There are six small lakes in the park, of which Lea Lake is the largest with about 15 acres of surface area. The water of the lakes is crystal clear and varies in depth from 45 feet in the shallow lakes to about 100 feet in the deeper ones. They were created as “sink holes” when water dissolved large areas of underground gypsum, resulting in cave-ins. The lakes now offer extensive recreational facilities for the people of New Mexico and for tourists passing through or visiting the area. Camping, swimming, and boating are available. Pecos “diamonds,” small quartz crystals, can be found in the neighboring hills.
Conchas Lake State Park
Sketch of Bottomless Lake
Conchas Lake is one of the largest sustained bodies of water in New Mexico. Conchas Dam, which holds the water of the Canadian River, forms the lake. The main dam is 235 feet above the roadway and is 1250 feet in length. At capacity it holds 600,000 acre-feet of water. The reservoir serves many purposes: flood control, local irrigation, camping and boating facilities, and fishing and water skiing.
The Canadian River has its origin on Raton Mesa and flows southward to Conchas Dam, then turns abruptly eastward. On its way across the High Plains, it cuts into some of the oldest rocks that can be seen on the western edge of the plains, the Dockum Group of Late Triassic age. The best place to view the earth-building processes of this region is where State Highway 120 crosses the gorge of the Canadian River between Wagon Mound and Roy.
Hyde Memorial State Park
Here, at an elevation of 9000 feet, among tall pines and aspens is one of the most scenic of all New Mexico’s parks. High in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, eight miles northeast of Santa Fe, the park offers an excellent example of the scenic beauty in New Mexico rarely seen by most travelers passing through the state. Easily accessible from Santa Fe, Hyde Park gives a few moments, or a few days, respite in the cool refreshment of a mountain forest. Excellent picnic and camping facilities are available. For those who want to penetrate the mountain vastness even farther, there are a number of well-marked trails for hiking.
Navajo Lake State Park
Navajo Dam on the San Juan River lies twenty-five miles east of Aztec at an elevation of 6200 feet in a region of spectacular scenic beauty. Camping, picnicking, boating, fishing, and water skiing facilities are available, and a lodge is under construction. This is expected to be one of the most important sports and recreational centers in northwest New Mexico in coming years.
Pancho Villa State Park
Named for the famous Mexican bandit and revolutionary leader, the park is located near Columbus, New Mexico, site of Villa’s most infamous raid. In the dead of the night on March 10, 1916, Villa and his men entered the town of Columbus and did their bloody work. When they left, seventeen local people were dead, including eight soldiers and nine civilians. The Mexican force suffered heavy casualties, perhaps as many as 125 killed. The town of Columbus was badly damaged and has only recently begun to recover from the blow. The expedition of General Pershing, then on duty along the Mexican border, was organized to hunt down Villa and his men. Pershing and a United States military unit spent three months inside Mexico, only to return to the United States empty-handed. The park commemorates one of the most interesting and tragic episodes in New Mexico history. Within the park, one can see excellent examples of Sonoran desert flora. Picnic facilities and camping sites are available.
El Vado Lake State Park
El Vado Dam is a part of the complex Rio Grande Conservancy District flood and irrigation project. It holds the water of the Chama River, which flows west, south, and then east into the Rio Grande. The country surrounding El Vado Lake is beautiful and contains some of the finest trout fishing streams in the state. At the lake itself there are camping facilities, including trailer spaces (no hookups for water or electricity). The lake is at an elevation of 7000 feet and is one of the important flood-control bodies of water in New Mexico.
Bluewater State Park
Bluewater Lake, at an elevation of 7460 feet, is a spot of spectacular beauty. Adjacent is a 160-acre wooded park. The area offers boating, fishing, and swimming. The lake was formed by impounding the waters from the Zuni Mountains’ watershed, and it fills three great depressions in high tablelands. The dam, built across two lofty natural walls of solid rock, the San Andres Limestone, holds a lake a mile wide and seven and a half miles long. Bluewater Lake State Park was the first of New Mexico’s parks, so designated in 1929.
Storrie Lake State Park
Storrie Lake State Park surrounds a small lake north of Las Vegas, New Mexico. It lies on the west edge of the High Plains and is an excellent recreation area. The lake is at an elevation of 6400 feet and has a limited number of picnic and camping facilities. It is stocked with rainbow and brown trout and crappies.
City of Rocks State Park
This is one of the most unusual of the state parks, and one of the finest for picnicking and for camping. Located in the unusual rock formation known as the Sugarlump Welded Rhyolite Tuff northwest of Deming, it is a source of wonder to all visitors. Suddenly, in a seemingly flat, desert plain, one comes upon these grotesque outcrops. In the coolness of the shade of these ancient rocks one can survey vistas under an azure sky that are almost breathless. This is the desert Southwest at its very best; not the harsh, unfriendly desert of movies and fiction, but a lovely spot in which to enjoy to the fullest the wonders of nature.
Kit Carson Memorial Park
This 20-acre plot of grass, flower beds, trees, and picnic tables lies on the northeast edge of Taos and contains the graves of Kit Carson and Padre José Martinez. Not far away is the Kit Carson House, a group of adobe buildings surrounding a patio, that was Carson’s headquarters, office, and home from 1858 to 1866. This Indian fighter, trapper, hunter, and trader is most famous for defeating the Navajos in Canyon de Chelly and marching 7000 of these Indians across New Mexico to a reservation at Bosque Redondo near Fort Sumner. However, during his eight years as Indian agent, Carson worked continuously for the welfare of his charges.
Oasis State Park
One of the state’s newest parks, Oasis is seven miles northeast of Portales along State Highway 467. This shady place of cottonwood trees amid sand dunes has long been a favorite picnic spot. The sand dunes form an irregular ridge separating Portales Valley to the south from Blackwater Draw to the north. In Blackwater Draw have been found bones of ancient animals and the weapons used by early man some 12,000 years ago. Portales Valley is the sand-filled remnant of the early Pleistocene Brazos River Valley that once drained eastward into Texas. About 800,000 years ago, the Pecos River to the west “captured” the headwaters of this former Brazos River and left the Portales Valley high and dry.
Valley of Fires State Park
This park, about five miles west of Carrizozo on U.S. Highway 380, features picnic tables amid the Carrizozo lava flow, or malpais, one of the youngest in the United States. The lava flowed out of Little Black Peak about 1000 years ago in a series of individual “rivers” of hot black basalt. The composite flow is 44 miles long, 0.5 to 6 miles wide, and is made up of about 1 cubic mile of basalt; it moved southward down the lowest part of the northern Tularosa Basin.
Climb around on the lava and note the ropy nature of the surface (pahoehoe of the Hawaiians), the many frozen gas bubbles in the rocks (vesicles), the squeeze-ups where once-liquid lava protrudes through cracks in the hardened crust, the pressure ridges where the hardened crust arched and broke, and collapsed lava tunnels where the outer lava froze and the molten interior ran out, leaving an open tube or cave.
Ute Lake State Park
Ute Dam, two miles southwest of Logan, provides a 4200-acre reservoir along the Canadian River and Ute Creek stocked with rainbow trout, bass, crappie, and catfish. Camping, picnicking, and boating facilities are available along the valley walls, which are cut in the brown Santa Rosa Sandstone and overlying maroon to green Chinle shales.
Santa Fe River State Park
Bordering the Santa Fe River in downtown Santa Fe, this city park merges with the State Capitol grounds. It provides picnic tables and benches in the shade of tall trees amid the picturesque ancient city.
Elephant Butte Lake State Park
The giant Elephant Butte Reservoir, impounded behind the dam five miles east of Truth or Consequences, provides year-around fishing, boating, water skiing, and camping. Built in brown to gray Cretaceous sandstone and shale, the dam is overlooked by the brownish-black volcanic neck that is Elephant Butte. Eastern shores are carved from the purplish and maroon McRae layers. This is the main storage reservoir for the water that irrigates the lush Rio Grande Valley to the south near Las Cruces and El Paso.
Caballo Lake State Park
Caballo Reservoir, downstream from Elephant Butte, offers excellent facilities for water sports, its bass and crappie fishing being notable. The State Park is fourteen miles south of Truth or Consequences and six miles north of the dam. The spectacular rugged front of the Caballo Mountains looms to the east, with sharp canyons and ribbed cliffs along the valley walls cut in the tan layers of the Santa Fe Formation.
Rio Grande Gorge State Park
From Velarde (twelve miles north of Espanola) for seventy miles northward to the Colorado state line, the Rio Grande Gorge is carved 500 to 800 feet into black basalt flows and tan Santa Fe Formation layers. Fishing is exciting in the fast waters, although the northern part of the gorge is difficult to reach. Foot and horseback trails lead to the bottom at the mouth of Red River west of Questa where picnic units have been built.
Alamogordo Lake State Park
The dam of Alamogordo Reservoir blocks the Pecos River and Alamogordo Creek northwest of Fort Sumner. Picnic, camp, and water sports facilities lie along U.S. Highway 84 about sixteen miles northwest of Fort Sumner. Juniper trees dot the low valley walls where the maroon to green shale and sandstone of the Chinle Formation crop out.
Rock Hound State Park
Lying on the west flank of the Little Florida Mountains, Rock Hound State Park, twelve miles southeast of Deming, offers camping and picnicking facilities and many varieties of agate in the volcanic rocks. A few miles to the south tower cliffs of the Florida Mountains, a landmark of southwestern New Mexico and also happy hunting grounds for rock hounds.
Clayton Lake State Park
Serving the northeast corner of New Mexico, Clayton Lake State Park lies twelve miles north of Clayton on State Highway 370, impounded by a dam across Cieneguilla Creek. The stream bed cuts brown Dakota Sandstone, and rolling grassy hills to the south overlie weathered basalt flows.
Morphy Lake State Park
Morphy Lake, backed up from a dam across Rito Morphy, lies three miles west of Ledoux in southwestern Mora County and thirty-one miles north of Las Vegas off State Highway 94. The 15-acre lake provides fine trout fishing and picnicking amid stately ponderosa pines, with the canyon walls formed by tier upon tier of Pennsylvanian limestones.