Bottomless Lakes S.P. NM

 Having exhausted all the New Mexico state parks that begin with the letter S — Ha! I don’t know if you all noticed it, but all the parks we’ve stayed at in New Mexico thus far this year have been esses, Sugarite, Storrie, Santa Rosa, and Sumner. They’ve all centered around lakes, too, and this one was no exception to that rule. I’m not kidding when I say there aren’t any others that begin with S, though.

Reservations recommended.

When we arrived after stopping off in Roswell for groceries, the signs at the entrance announced that the campground was full. I don’t love paying $12 per park for reservations (that’s $12 even if you book two or more parks at the same time; three parks? +$36 please) but the overall cost of New Mexico state parks is still well below just about anywhere else. This park also happens to have full hook-ups, which meant unlimited hot showers in our own home. Since we have entered the season of heavy sunscreen and occasional bug spray, that’s priceless.

All we did after arrival was take a short walk around the campgrounds to see what was what.

The lakeside picnic structure is very cool, not old but built to look so and providing a large avenue of shaded picnic tables. I wish the tower had been accessible.

 We were saving a few park activities for the warmer days to come and spent our first day at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. After chatting with the volunteers in the Visitor Center about their plum assignment there, we set off first on the short nature trail behind the facility.

The only wildlife were the bugs flying in our ears.

Following that, we set off on the 8-mile drive around the refuge, with plans to take a <2 mile hike halfway through. On our way, we rolled up on a little friend.

“Hello, my name issss Danger Noodle. What’sssss yourssss?”

Before you ask, the answer is no, we did not get this close. While TBG did get out of the car, we ain’t stupid and used our zoom lenses to capture this ~4-foot Western Diamondback rattlesnake. If you’re going to run across one, on the road in plain sight is the way to do it. Though the log book at the VC indicated other visitors had seen one a few days prior on the trail to which we were headed, and the posted sign at the trail head warned that they were extremely common along the path, we saw no others.

TBG was ready, though!

It was not the best time of year to visit the refuge as far as other wildlife was concerned, but we did see some pelicans, egrets, and several kinds of ducks, all too far away or too quick for us to get decent photos.

On a day of what we hoped would be Spring’s last snit of the season, we took a short walk on the park’s Wetlands Trail.

 With the sun’s return the next day, we headed into town. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Roswell and know its reputation for little green men and their flying saucers. We were not interested in all the touristy alien attractions, but instead wanted to check out a bike trail I’d located online that started at a small zoo at one end of town and ended just past a bird sanctuary and nature center at the other end of town. We parked at the zoo and pedaled off along the Spring River Parkway Trail.

 What a delight this trail was! The only less-than-lovely section was when it dipped into the large paved city drainage ditches, but even those were easily navigable. Otherwise, the 8-mile trail took us through several parks, past the pretty golf course, into the J. Kenneth Smith Bird Sanctuary, and back again to the Spring River Park & Zoo.

Not the zoo, but one of my favorite little stops along the trail.

Oddly, we didn’t take any pictures at the little FREE zoo, but we enjoyed seeing the animals, all rehabilitating rescues.

With a dearth of hiking in the area, we took to our bikes again on our last full, hot day. The park has a mountain bike trail at its north end, and we rode the roads to it.

 We weren’t sure what the snake situation would be, but it was pretty hot for them to be out in the direct sun, and the trail was mostly open visually. I turned back when it was too close to the edge of a shallow canyon, but I encourage TBG to finish the loop while I pedaled back to the sign. Not to be a complete wimp, I rode past the sign in the opposite direction until the trail once again became too edgy for me. No snakes were spotted, but several speedy little lizards played chicken with our bikes.

 The temps were in the mid-80’s by the time we got back to the campground, and while TBG went back to the rig to get his water shoes, I pedaled directly to the beach area, and waded in. Have you ever heard of those pedicures where you put your feet in water with little fishes that nibble off the dead skin? Well, save your money, ladies and get a free one in Lea Lake! The little fishes swam over to my feet and tentatively tickled them with their delicate nibbles.

 

Some of these may be the endangered Pecos pupfish, in which case I was happy to donate some food.

If I have scheduled things properly, you are reading this while we are in west Texas, scaling the highest point or searching for some colorful petroglyphs and telling ourselves that going off the grid is fine, fine, fine while we cry over the last shriveled avocado. I’ll let you know how that all worked out when we’re back in New Mexico again.

COMMENTS

aelkins1 Love your blog posts, Jooli. You make me smile AND give me great ideas on stuff to see & do.

Chasing Dirt Thank you! So glad to have met you and so fun to ride along with one another — double the fun!

Laurel We’ve always avoided Roswell because we figured it would be overrun with tacky touristy alien crapola. But wow, that bike path is gorgeous! And a bird sanctuary, too! So now I want to go to Roswell. However, I only want to go when the weather is cold enough that there will be absolutely no chance whatsoever of encountering a rattlesnake that size. That thing is HUGE. I was thinking exactly what Laura said, that it must have just eaten a family of mice.

“Skidmarks” is a great name for a mountain bike trail, LOL! You are definitely on a roll with the “S’s” in New Mexico. 😎

Chasing Dirt We were (pleasantly) surprised that Roswell wasn’t all neon green and alien everything, which is what we expected. It had its fair share of that, but was actually a cute “normal” little town. Prettier than I anticipated!

Oh, that fat snake! It looked even bigger because it had flattened itself out to take advantage of the warm gravel, but it certainly must be well-fed. I keep going back to that picture and looking at the size of its huge head. *shiver*

I thought “Skidmarks” was a cool bike trail name, too. And you are a dear friend to not call me out on my use of petroglyphs when I meant pictographs — I know there are both there, but I used the wrong one, though I do know the difference!! ❤

Laurel Hahaha, you give me more credit than I deserve!! I know the difference between pictographs and petroglyphs, too—but my keen editing skills failed me here, LOL.
I can’t wait to read your post about Hueco Tanks! oxoxo

chapter3travels While I am severely disappointed in your failure to hang out with little green men and flying saucers, I LOVE the park trail you found. So green! And that stone bridge you took a photo of is gorgeous! We love finding these little urban bike paths… they are the perfect way to get out of traffic, away from the concrete, and see the city. Good on Roswell for building a nice one (I’m sure they would love to be known for something other than those little green men, after all.)

As for that snake, WOW! I’m still amazed by how fat (and probably happy) he was. Some poor mouse (mice?) had a tough day, I think. At least if you were gonna run into one, it was way out in the open – and hard to miss. Hopefully that’s the end of those encounters for you guys.

Can’t wait to hear about Hueco Tanks! Hopefully its charms will outweigh the fact that you are eating sad, dry, moldy, avocados.

Chasing Dirt I kept saying as we tooled around Roswell how much I liked it. I was going to do a photo collage of all the green men around town, but there weren’t enough for me to do it! Other than the weather, which I think would be a bit too hot for us, I could actually see myself living there — how weird is that?!

I suppose we should love rattlesnakes since they eat mice and mice eat RVs, but…scary and bitey! I have a feeling that since we’re not quitting our hiking in snake country, we’ll come across more, but please, please, please let us see them first!!

I can’t wait to write about Hueco — that place made me so happy. It would be worth it even just for a day visit — the picnic sites are incredible. I learned a new, disturbing fact about spiders our last night there, but that can wait for the blog post (you’re in no danger and therefore, I’m sure in no hurry to hear it :D)