Santa Rosa, New Mexico ~ Camping at the Lake

 

About an hour and 45 minutes drive east from our house is the Santa Rosa Lake State Park. Jax and Jem’s Boy Scout Troop was planning to spend Saturday, picnicking, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and peddle-boating in Santa Rosa at Park Lake and jumping into the famous Blue Hole in downtown Santa Rosa. The Boy Scout Troop was only going to spend the day in Santa Rosa, but we wanted to make a mini-vacation out of the trip.

When we first moved to New Mexico almost 20 years ago, Ranchman John and I were on a mission to visit and camp in all of New Mexico’s 35 State Parks. So far we have only visited 16….make that 17, because the kidlets and I (John had to work) decided to drive out to Santa Rosa on Friday and spend Friday and Saturday nights at Santa Rosa Lake.

This was our campsite at Santa Rosa Lake.

 

Our tent fit perfectly in this shady nook between these two trees. We were surprised to get such a nice campsite on a summer weekend and even more surprised that the campground with more than 100 sites was less than 10% full. Of course we camped in the section with no hook-ups so most of the people camping were in tents or tent trailers. We didn’t visit the section that had electric and water hook-ups, where most of the RVs camp, because it was on the far side of the lake and we wanted to be closer to Santa Rosa.

We were actually surprised at how noisy it got on Friday night when some partiers showed up to camp and stayed up drinking, being loud and obnoxious all the way past 3am! The females in the group were the worst with their foul, crass language. Very un-lady-like and I was upset that my kidlets had to listen to that trash as they were trying to drift off to sleep.

The groups of college age boys that cruised the campground in packs, farting, burping and guffawing like a bunch of drunk sailors made me want to lock up all our stuff and leave for a motel.

The camp hosts were MIA and no Park Rangers came to the rescue, so we had a rough night. And the next morning we saw beer cans on the road and near the restrooms. In all our years of camping in State Parks, BLM and National Forest Campgrounds we have never had an experience like that. And I hope we never do again. It’s a shame that spending the night at home is quieter than camping outdoors in nature.

But the next evening as we were eating dinner, after a day spent in Santa Rosa, a couple sheriff vehicles, ranger vehicles and a K-9 Unit drove by with spotlights scanning over each campsite. Saturday night was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. Just the way I like it!

 

This was the view of the lake from our campsite. Jen couldn’t wait to explore.

 

After we got the tent set up the kidlets headed down to the lake while I prepared dinner. Here’s Jem running to catch up with Jax and Jen.

After dinner we all decided to do some exploring together, so we made a detour to explore the Los Tanos Equestrian Camp and Trail located in the Primitive Camping Area within the Santa Rosa Lake State Park.

I tried to do a Babel Fish translation of the word Tanos and apparently it’s not a Spanish Word. But it is derived from a New Mexico Tewa Indian word with this meaning:

“People with the name Tano have a deep inner need for quiet, and a desire to understand and analyze the world they live in, and to learn the deeper truths. They are excited by change, adventure, and excitement. They are dynamic, visionary, optimistic and versatile, able to make constructive use of freedom. They fight being restricted by rules and conventions. “

Sounds like it’s describing me!
The name Los Tanos is a perfect name for a quiet, secluded horse trail that travels across the high plains encircling a big, beautiful, blue lake with vistas that seem to go on forever.

Here is the corral with 4 pens, a hay feeder, a water trough, and a water spigot.

The pens are about 10 x 10 and the area is well maintained.

The trail, which is about 6-8 miles long, but with many side trails on 500 acres of land that can be explored, starts just east of the horse pens. It was obviously planned well to keep the trail only for the use of equestrians. Someday I want to trail ride here.

Afterwards we all hiked down to the lake to explore and watch the sunset. The weather was perfect. About 75 degrees, breezy, and the smoke from the wildfires in AZ hadn’t made it out this far or, unlike our area around the Sandia Mountains, where the smoke ends up being dammed in by the valleys and mountains and becomes thick and acrid, the open plains of the high desert helps disperse the smoke across a wider area.

 

While boulder-hopping, Jax noticed a nice little surprise hiding at the base of a boulder.

 

It’s a Rock Hopper!

Bet you are glad it wasn’t a rattlesnake, eh?

 

We enjoyed exploring and scrambling over the sandstone boulders while skipping rocks and watching the handful of fishing boats, speed boats, water skiers, Skidoos, and kayaks go by.  Considering it was a summer weekend, the lake and campground wasn’t very crowded.

 

The twinlings got really good at skipping rocks and they were able to get 6-7 good skips across the lake with each throw. But it was also very relaxing just gazing at the water sparkling like diamonds in the fading sunlight while listening to it gently slap and curl against the rocks.

 

Jenna has always been an explorer, an adventurer, and one who enjoys camping, hiking and all things outdoors. She reminds me of myself as a young girl.

 

 

And my Dobbie Girl surprises me all the time. From spending the first two years of her life caged in a Puppy Mill so she could be bred over and over, just so they could take her babies away and sell them, to being introduced to new and different environments and experiences on a daily basis. We take Dobbie everywhere we go and she takes it all in stride and insists she be included in all we do. 

 

The Santa Rosa Lake State Park has a lake surface of 3,800 acres at an elevation of 4,800 ft with less than 14.2 inches of precipitation per year, which means more than 330 days of beautiful, sunny blue skies to enjoy all year.

 

Next up: Santa Rosa, New Mexico ~ Park Lake