Heron and El Vado Lakes

Thomas and I spent the day in Rio Arriba County at Heron Lake State Park and El Vado Lake State Park. We couldn't get away this weekend so we opted for today to go kayaking and letterboxing. We had a pleasant two hour drive from Santa Fe to Tierra Amarilla. We arrived at Heron Lake State Park and made our way to one of the boat ramps. While we unloaded the kayaks we talked with this older woman who was getting her kayak ready. She was really nice, she told us she lives in an RV and travels around the country (she has been doing this for 17 years - 5 years with her husband before he died and for the past 12 years by herself). Her kayak was an inflatable one, I really liked it, easy to transport and store. Anyway, we got our kayaks in the water and headed out. Heron Lake is a "No Wake Lake" so the water was really still - it was like paddling on glass. We paddled around the lake never really getting into the open larger part. We put our kayaks in the water at the boat ramp near Willow Creek Campground. We paddled through The Narrows and made it into the smaller open area of the lake. We then turned around and paddled back through The Narrows and past the NM Sailing Club and through another narrow passage. At the end of this passage we turned around and headed back to the boat ramp. While going through The Narrows we saw all these birds flying around and eventually noticed all these nests on the rock cliffs on both sides of the water. I am pretty sure these birds are Water Ouzels or American Dippers. It was a great site seeing all the nests and watching all the birds flying around. As we were going around the NM Sailing Club we spotted two blue herons on the rocks just above the water line. Also flying around this same area were red-tailed hawks and lots of osprey. We spent a wonderful two hours on the water - it was so peaceful. We only saw two boats during our outing.

After getting the boats back in the truck we headed off to find a letterbox. This box was planted by PetroPunks a little over a year ago and is called Heron Lake. It is on the Nature Trail at the Willow Creek Campground. It was an easy find and we were the first finders. We stamped in on a stone bench very near the box with a great view of the lake. After stamping in and rehiding the box we headed back to the car. The trail was an easy walk and had a guide that told you about the trees and plants of the area.

We drove through the rest of the park and stopped just as we drove over the dam so I could take a couple of pictures. From there we continued our drive on a dirt road that lead out of Heron Lake State Park and took us into El Vado Lake State Park and around the entire perimeter of the lake. We entered the park from NM 112 and made our way to Shale Point and more specifically to the Rio Chama Trail. This is a 5.5 mile (no, we did not hike this trail all the way) that connects the two parks. The reason we were on this trail was to plant a letterbox. I placed Eagle @ El Vado about a quarter mile up the trail. It is an easy walk to the box and you get a really great view of the lake. Now that the box was hidden we were ready to head home.

The drive home wasn't as pleasant as the morning drive. There was much more traffic - everyone heading home after their holiday weekend. We decided to stop for a late lunch/early dinner at the Café Abiquiu (at the Abiquiu Inn). After a nice and relaxing meal we completed our journey home. It was an absolutely beautiful day and a great way to end a long holiday weekend.