Caballo Lake

I am dedicating this blog post to my good friend Dave Heller. He received the results of an MRI this morning and was told the words no one wants to hear. Brain tumour. David is the sweetest and nicest and most generous person I know. He is also one tough man and will be back to his wonderful self shortly. Freddy and I are thinking of you, buddy.

Speaking of Freddy, we are wrapping up our stay at Caballo Lake State Park.

About 20 miles south of Elephant Butte and 60 miles north of Las Cruces, the lake was formed by a dam on the Rio Grande. It averages about 7 miles long and a mile wide.

There are two separate camping areas here, Riverside and Lakeside. The latter is the main camping area so that is where we will start our tour.

The three loops are named after horses, which piqued Freddy's interest. He likes horses.

Palomino has 7 full hook sites, some with lake views, some available for reservations.

It shares a restroom with the next loop called Appaloosa. I continue to be impressed with the facilities at NM State Parks. The only difference I have noticed so far is the counter top materials.

Nifty.

Appaloosa has 29 sites with water and power, all first come first served.

I would call these side pull throughs and they offer quite a bit of privacy with the ramadas. Very well designed. We stayed in site 22.

A large cricket was our neighbor one night. Seriously.

I thought it looked cool. Freddy thought it looked broken. The couple towing it love it.

The last loop here is called Stallion. Freddy was getting a bit perturbed at the lack of horses so I reminded him that they are just names. Like Elephant Butte. He mumbled something that sounded like "no elephant butts there" and we continued onwards.

The 10 spots offer water and power. Some can be reserved.

A couple of miles south is the Riverside camping area.

There are picnic areas and developed sites next to the river.

Electric sites and full hookup sites are available.

If you want to camp with a few dozen of your closest friends that can be arranged. Just reserve a spot in the rally area.

They have six of these neat little shelters with 8 power hookups each.

And one enormous shelter in the middle.

Freddy liked the acoustics inside and kept practicing his coyote yips and yowls he learned at City of Rocks. Until I dragged him away with promises of a swim in the mighty Rio Grande.

Ummm, maybe not.

It was a little low.

If you can do without hookups, a couple of primitive areas might just fit the bill. On the other side of that dam is Percha Flats.

Plenty of room to set up camp on the shore.

 I like how other campers have built rock fire pits for future visitors. Many times I have left enough wood and kindling at a campsite for a first night fire. I call it paying it forward. Kind of a camping code. You always leave a spot cleaner than when you arrived and you always help out a camper in need. Which we did at the next primitive area.

Upper Flats is by the lake at the main campground. The wonderpup and I walked down there past the boat ramp to check it out.

Great views and a fire pit at this spot but Freddy kept dragging me down closer to the water.

I followed his gaze and yep, he had found a fellow camper in trouble.

That van wasn't going anywhere. Shorelines can be tricky. When the water level fluctuates it can leave soft muddy areas. The pup and I walked back to our site and enlisted the help of neighbor Dave who had the right truck for the job.

End result? One happy and wiser camper.

I mentioned the boat ramp earlier so one evening Freddy and I walked down to to take a look.

The two docks enclose a large boat ramp. Freddy was still a little iffy about walking out on one of them. Maybe it was the creaking noises.

We walked back to the shore and I snapped a few pics as the sun was setting against the mountains behind us.

Continuing along the rocky shore we came across some kids fishing.

The guy on the left was yelling at the one in the middle to pay attention. There was some action in the water.

Yep, fish on!

Freddy and I headed back to camp before he could try to help land the fish.

Some nice trails curl around the main campground and we walk them every morning and evening.

Our favorite stop is a bench that overlooks the Upper Flat primitive area.

If you look close you can see a couple of rigs parked overlooking the lake.

One of the many things that amaze me about Freddy is his intelligence. Lately, that includes his ability to read signs. And comment on them. He laughed about these two.

"Can't humans see?"
"Well, sometimes they get distracted while driving."

"I get distracted by cats. And rabbits. I would like to get distracted by an elephant. Or even a horse."

I had nothing to say.

"I also noticed the signs at the docks were different."

"Huh?"

"Look."

"One says No Fishing No Swimming and the other says No Swimming No Fishing. Different."

"Ummm."

"And this one is spelled wrong."

"They forgot the 'ing'."

"Freddy, I think that means that there are no fish here. We are not near the lake."

"Two things. First, have you heard of flying fish? And second, I think it means don't put fish bits in the dumpster."

I think he is right. Very smart pup.

Regards,
Freddy and Greg....I mean Greg and Freddy