Our Location: Bosque Redondo Lake, Fort Sumner, NM
A very quiet night, we both slept well. After about 10:30 pm there wasn’t much of any kind of noise at all. Even nature seemed settled down to sleep. Morning was cool and crisp until the sun rose above the horizon and warmed up the air to a pleasant 65F/ 18.3 C but with a slight breeze which in the shade was cool but in the sun was perfect.
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| Starting out for my walking and looking back towards home. |
We decided on a quiet day at home and spent a couple of hours just walking and enjoying the park area. We chatted with a few folks and learned a couple of things such as the pond is stocked with trout about once a month. In all other areas that are stocked there is a fee for fishing, here there is no fee, nor is there a donation box for the park. It is a busy spot in the summer with folks camping here but now it’s very quiet. Three times around the outer edge of the park netted me just about 3.5 miles of walking. It’s not smooth for walking but very doable after the desert hiking I did. A wonderful little spot for certain.
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| I believe before the cat tails over took the area there was indeed a small lake here. |
Today’s photos are all from my first trip around the outer edges and a few of things I noticed. The large cottonwoods here are just starting to show a hint of colour and will be greening up soon. The cattails or bull rushes or whatever you call them rustle in the breeze and are all brown with no hint of green. You can see that around the park area there has been a controlled burn to help keep down some of the problem areas I guess. The roads are roughish but not unpassable. A great many vehicles go through this park in a day or at least it seems to me they do. I would say easily about 15 vehicles entered the park area today. Some came to fish, some came to exercise, some came to picnic, some just drove through and kept going. The park is not ‘ crazy busy or noisy’ as such and the vehicles aren’t bothersome in any way. It just seems very busy for the small number of people that live in the area.
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| The road curves through some cotton woods along the way. |
Tomorrow we will go into the little town of Fort Sumner for a few things, fuel, a bit of shopping and looking around. We want to leave a little something in town for the use of the park and also to figure out if there is a reason to return to this area in the future. The park is a wonderful stop, restful and rustically charming. It is however a long way to come if we are not going to be traveling in this area for some other reason.
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| Some of these trees are getting to be quite large. |
Realwind Drive passes by the front of the park and is a fairly busy country road during the day time, some utility work going on just south of the park is also adding to the daytime noise. This is farming or horse country, with the odd moo in the mix as well. However I have not heard one rooster.
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| Even some dunes here. |
I asked Riley what she would say the park has to offer to travellers and she replied with the following list: easy access, easy to find, nice folks, quiet, nice place to walk, and she feels very safe here. Negatives her only words were, ‘ the walking path is a bit rough’. The only thing I would add to the that list is the garbage cans located by each of the picnic shelters is a bonus.
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| The vault toilets are the cleanest I've ever seen. |
A few rain drops fell this afternoon but not enough to wet a postage stamp, we only knew because we could see the drops on the window. We enjoyed a nice leisurely lunch today with mashed dill potatoes, beans and mushrooms, along with some meatloaf. Filled our hollow legs!
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| Looking across the water towards home. |
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had wonderful day.
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| An interesting dam or water control device. |
Until next time… take care, be safe,
Deb
