Exploring around Heron Lake

We spent a relaxing and pleasant week at Heron Lake State Park. Every day, Hanna and I walked all the campground loops and some of the trail that runs from the Visitor’s Center to the dam, passing through each of the five campgrounds along the lake shore. We monitored the small amount of activity in and out of the campground. It was a very quiet week; so much so, that I actually got spooked one evening walking a distant loop and came upon a man camped all alone in his car. I got to thinking about what a good place it would be for an escaped fugitive to hide out. Hanna and I hurried back to our Minnie.

There’s not a lot to do or see around Heron, but we did take a few day trips to explore the area. We stopped at the dam one day to have a look.

We drove over to El Vado Lake twice. The first time, we took the north road to Stone House Lodge, where Mom and Dad stayed one summer. The park is really run down now and the business is barely hanging on. We carefully drove up a dirt road to the north lake shore, but it is very low too, and there was really no beauty to see.

We explored the south end of the lake a few days later, where the State Park campgrounds are located. It was a nicer lake view, but the campsites are more out in the open. We both agreed we like Heron better for camping.

We drove back into Chama one day to visit the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, but it was not open for tours until Memorial Day weekend. We wandered through the town welcome center (nothing to see), and headed back to camp.

The last day before we left, we drove down to Abiquiu Reservoir. Richard has told us about how the rivers wind through these many lakes before finally supplying water to the city of Albuquerque, so we decided to see if the lake nearest there would be any fuller. It’s a pretty lake, but a treeless landscape. There was one sailboat, but otherwise the lakeshore was quiet.

On the way to Abiquiu, we stopped at Echo Canyon. This was the sightseeing highlight of the week and we just stumbled on it and decided to stop. I’ll let the photos show how pretty and how cool this place was.

I’d like to embed a video but I can’t from my phone, so here’s a link if you’d like to hear the echo.  

https://youtu.be/KQsIKAIlz54

We were planning to stay at Heron until Tuesday, but a nasty weather forecast forced us to move up our departure date to Sunday, when we skedaddled back to Navajo.