My Trails

Cracked dam.

This morning I walked down into the canyon and followed the trail up to the dam. My tracking app announced one mile just as I reached the bottom of the dam. The trail got a little muddy and wet as I neared the base and I got a wet foot a couple of times.
The weather was cloudy and cool this morning, making the hike comfortable. The wind did howl up through the canyon, threatening to flip my hat into the stream every now and then.

I noticed two long cracks in the face of the concrete dam that made me think about what I would do if the wall let go while I was helplessly trapped in the canyon. I kept looking at the canyon sides and wondering how fast I could scramble up to higher ground. One positive factor of the safety of the dam structure is that the lake is very low and not putting much pressure on the cracked wall.

I have noticed that my fridge has not been as cold as it usually is. I pulled the jet nozzle out and found out it was plugged with gunk over the end. This has happened before. I’m glad it was an easy fix.

Will it rain?

We have been getting lots of dark clouds the last couple days. I’m hoping it means the monsoons will get here soon and cool it off some. It has been up in the 90’s this week.

I made a trip to Grants on Honda a few days ago. I was mainly looking for RO water and some lettuce from Walmart. I rode all over town looking for a water machine outside a store and finally had to text my friend John to find out where he found it. It was off on a side street outside a Family Dollar store.

Today I rode west on interstate 40 to Thoreau. Thoreau has a couple gas stations, two restaurants, cheap propane, and a Dollar General. Every little village I’ve gone through this last week has a tent set up on the outskirts of town, selling fireworks. I’m thinking maybe New Mexico has a relaxed regulatory on firecrackers. I hope people are careful this year because setting off fireworks and rockets in the forest are how some forest fires get started.

While I was in Thoreau I drove up the back road behind Bluewater Lake to check out a nice boondocking spot I found a couple years ago. The person here at the visitors center told me the forest was all closed over there and I couldn’t go in. It was a good thing I was skeptical because the forest road and campsites were all open. The recreation area on the other side of the lake is closed, however; that’s probably what she heard about.

Every day I look for an open electric site here. There are only five, and if one opens up, it is grabbed almost immediately. There are several reservation electric sites that I noticed are sometimes empty every day. Other state parks will allow you to stay at these sites if no one has reserved them. I walked down to the visitors center to ask them why they didn’t rent out these reservation sites if no one had reserved them. She gave me some story about a guy that wouldn’t move because he was drunk the night before and couldn’t drive. It was such a hassle that they don’t do any temporary occupancy. Sounded like a good scenario for a heafty ticket from law enforcement to me. I think they just don’t have the staff or energy to coordinate the reservation system with first come campers.

Overview

A couple of days ago I slipped on some gravel beside my RV and fell on a landscape timber. I had some sore ribs for a while, but today I felt up to taking a hike.

Coming down to the river.

There is a short trail – no more than a mile I would guess – that loops down into a canyon beside the campground.

The trail is quite steep going down but switchbacks make it easier to navigate.

Stepping Stones to cross stream.

At the bottom the trail follows the stream for about a half mile and then climbs back up to the campground.

More of the canyon.

It’s quite pretty walking along the water with the cliff walls towering over you. The stream is overflow from the dam that creates Bluewater Lake. I was told that a certain amount of water has to be released for the Indian reservation down below.

View from above.

At the bottom of the canyon you can turn upstream and hike to the dam. That will be for another day.

Elephant Butte Lake.

I left Datil Wells campground on Wednesday and drove south on Interstate 25 to check out two lakes and state parks established years ago by building dams on the Rio Grande River. Both these lakes are not very pretty. The landscape surrounding the lakes remind me of what you would see if someone put a lake in Quartzsite.

Elephant Butte is the biggest lake of any New Mexico state parks and also the most crowded. Even this time of year with temperatures hitting 100 degrees, the campground and lakefront were busy with campers and boaters. Quite a few RVs were plugged in to electric so they could run their AC but there were several that camped in non electric sites. I bought a season pass for $225 and also sprung for electric for the night. After I was settled I unloaded Honda to explore the park and surrounding towns.

You can actually park down by the Lakeshore if you are brave. Some places are sandy and easy to bury a vehicle. I talked with one camper that said he had to be towed out of a bad spot. The toy of choice for water fun seems to be the jet ski. I saw many of them buzzing around on the lake.

Walmart has a good selection of Kayaks.

The surrounding town of Elephant Butte is the typical tourist trap – lots of restaurants, fishing shops, ect. Fifteen miles south is the city of Truth or Consequences where you can get anything you want.

Caballo State Park along the river below the dam.

The next morning I drove a few miles south of Truth or Consequences to Caballo State Park. Caballo is way less crowded and I think prettier than Elephant Butte. Below the park are very nice sites along the river. I think I will visit and spend some time there when the weather gets a little cooler.

It was a long drive north today where I found myself at Bluewater Lake State Park. Even though this park is over 7000′ it was still 90 degrees when I pulled in. I could probably spring for an electric site or run my generator some. I’ll see how much I can stand.