April 19, 2013 – The Lake, The Dam, and The Road

From our campsite, we could see a number of vehicles drive down to the water so today we decided to check it out.

 

People are now camping in areas next to the Lake. 

In the distance you can see our campground.  The water use to come up to that point.  Oh My!

We decided to continue our journey around the lake.  We stopped at Paseo Del Rio Campground where we took the mile nature trail along the Rio Grande.  Here is the Rio Grande River:

Cute stepping stones:

From 1934 to 1941, the CCC upgraded campgrounds, built tourist cabins, foot trails, and a boathouse as well as improved access to Elephant Butte Lake.  You can see their work throughout the park and this ditch area is one example:

The trail:

 

As we walked towards the end of the trail we saw this building – sort of looks like a small castle.  Actually this is one of the few buildings remaining from the time of the dam’s construction.  There were four cells in this small building – Yikees:

After we checked out the Paseo Del Rio Campground, we continued our journey with a stop at the back side of the dam:

And then to the top of the dam:

Above the dam:

Elephant Butte Lake Dam:

Looking down the Rio Grande:

 

You can really see how low the water is here:

The cement plant that built the dam.  Once the water came in, these ruins were under water:

Islands now appearing:

We had to drive out to the cement plant ruins – this was taken from that point:

As we continued our journey, we found these mule deer:

Our last stop in the State Park was the Winding Road Park and the Damsite Marina.  They are reopening some of the older buildings as a restaurant, motel, and bed and breakfast.  When we pulled into the parking lot, this was the first statue we saw:

I love these statues dedicated to the CCC.  I wrote about another one in Shenandoah National Park - http://thehitzels.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-27-2011-ccc-and-hurricane.html

A great site about the statues and the CCC - http://www.ccclegacy.org/statue_program.html

Lots of squirrels just begging for food:

The DamSite Marina:

We continued our journey on NM-51 towards Engle.  That part of the road is:

I have to admit that I do not know much about the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Spanish for the Royal Road of the Interior Land) which was a long trade route between Mexico City and San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico.  The NPS has now made this a National Historic Route and our next time thru NM, we are going to check it out.

Here was more of our route – AWESOME SCENERY:

 

Another great road trip!

Back at home, we made supper over the fire – YUM!  But the wind picked up so we could not enjoy an evening fire. :-((

Until tomorrow!