We started our South Eastern New Mexico journey in Santa Rosa, NM. Santa Rosa dubs itself the city of natural lakes. The Blue Hole is their most famous as it is one of the most popular dive destinations in the US because of the water depth (81 ft.) and it’s clarity. This spring has a constant flow of 3,000 gallons a minute and a consistent water temperature of 62 degrees. It’s only 80 ft. in diameter at the top, but expands to 130 ft. at the bottom. So, if you’re a diver this is one place to check out. If you’re not, well it is right off I-40 and it’s an interesting thing to see. Plus in the summer, a quick dip will cool you off.
There is another lake that looked like it would be a great summer option called Park Lake. This lake has a beach area and looks like kids would have a great time on the inflatable slides.
We had the granddaughters for a couple of days and they were happy just to visit the playground and have a picnic at the Santa Rosa State Park. They also had a good time camping in Ms. Wynn and enjoyed the Jiffy Pop popcorn. In spite of Gracie being deathly afraid of spiders and other creepy crawlies, she had no problem jumping out of the car to check out a tarantula. Santa Rosa lake is quite large and many people enjoy all types of watersports and fishing here.
Dropped the girls off with their mom and headed to our next stop, Fort Sumner. We had booked a spot at Sumner Lake, which is a state park a little north of the town of Fort Sumner. Our spot had a great view of the lake. Will managed to see some deer and wild turkeys as well. This park has a short little hike called Discovery trail, which we did. What did we discover? That NM has a state butterfly, the Sandia Hairstreak. Who knew? Shadow enjoyed his dip in the lake and while it was a bit windy it was sunny and warm.
Fort Sumner is as they say “a sleepy little village with a shady little past. We went to the Bosque Redondo Memorial. This was a great stop that neither Will nor I really knew anything about. Fort Sumner was actually built to house the army sent to watch over the captured Indians. This was a dark period in American history and is not really taught in any great detail other than to say the government forced the Indians to live on reservations. At the same time slavery was being abolished, Natives were being enslaved. Soldiers were under orders to kill every male seen from the Mescalero Apache tribe. In the promise of peace, the Apache relocated to Fort Sumner. The Navajo were starved and then promised food and land if they relocated to Fort Sumner. The Navajo were then forced to walk, in most cases, over 400 miles to Fort Sumner. This is what is known as the “Long Walk”. Those that could not continue the walk were either shot and killed or just left to die.
The conditions at the fort were horrible. Not enough food or water and poor living conditions. After a couple of years, the Apaches took off in the middle of the night back to their ancestral lands. The Navajo lasted another three years and managed to negotiate a treaty that would make them a sovereign nation and give them back their homeland. Unfortunately, the treaty also came with many concessions, that forced English boarding schools on their children and having to stay within the boundaries of the reservation land. The memorial is a place worth stopping and at certain times during the year they have performances of native dances. There is no fee to visit the memorial, but donations are requested.
The thing Fort Sumner is best known for, is being the place where Billy the Kid was shot and killed. It is the site of the Kid’s grave and where the Billy the Kid Museum is located. If you’ve ever heard about the “Old West”, you’ve probably heard of the outlaw Billy the Kid. This museum has some great pieces of Billy’s history and other old west memorabilia. They also show a well done film about Billy’s life. Billy also had ties to the largest private land owner at one time, the Lucien Maxwell family. Lucien’s grave is also in the same cemetery as Billy’s.
