Hiking at Bluewater State Park

We woke to a chilly morning. The temperature in the RV was 68 but outside it was about 50. At 7500 feet elevation, the air is thinner and cooler.   It was a nice feeling after so much heat in northeast New Mexico.
Today we hiked the trails at the park. 

Dam overlook trail plus Lower dam trail plus the Canyon side trail.  The trail led us up to the dam overlook.  Down the canyon on switchbacks in the trail to the bottom.  Then along stream at the bottom to the dam.  We left the park for a while as we approached the dam.  It seems that a marker we passed was the edge of the State Park, but we just kept going along the trail till we reached the dam. We walked up to the spillway on the back side of the dam on the lower trail.

We were able to see lots of flowers, hummingbirds, a huge blue heron, red squirrels, many different birds, crawfish, and lots of small bees collecting pollen. We saw signs of the wild horses, but they did not show themselves.  There were also a lot of deer tracks. Exhausting but great hike.

​Along the stream there were many wild flowers and cattails.

​Chipmunks and Red Squirrels were in the trees.  Several kinds of birds in the valley including hummingbirds, a big Blue Heron and Mud-dobbers working on their nests.   There were also crawdads in the stream.  I suspect that was what the Heron was eating.

We got to see some great views of the dam from below and in the canyon.

 I try to scare away anything that slithers, but I missed a 1-foot garter snake on the trail which gave Shawna a surprise.  ​

​Then we hiked back up from the canyon to the campground.

A total of 4.1 miles an elevation change of 318 feet down and back up from the canyon. Alltrails recorded our hike. ​

Back to the RV to have lunch, relax, and rest our feet.