The next stop for us was the Bottomless Lakes State Park outside of Roswell, NM. These lakes were formed by naturally occurring sink holes. And no, they’re not really bottomless. There are a couple that are 90 feet deep and appeared to be bottomless because of their blue green color. There are 7 lakes within the park and each has their own uniqueness. There is the Figure 8 lake where one side is saline and will not support fish and the other side in which fish can live. There is the Lazy Lagoon which looks very shallow and is 90 feet deep.
We stayed at the Lea Lake Campground, which is near the largest lake. Lea Lake is also the lake where there is a sandy beach for swimming. The thing that we didn’t like about this park was all the mosquitos. They weren’t too bad during the day as long as you stayed away from the lake area. So, those beautiful sunset photos, what you don’t see is me swatting constantly. On the plus side this park does offer free WiFi. You can fish in some of the lakes and non-motorized boats are allowed as well.
Took a drive around the park and had a bobcat jump in front of our car as he was busy chasing a rabbit. We went on to hike the Skidmarks trail. It’s a geared as a mountain bike trail that you can hike as well. Shadow enjoyed the trail, but totally missed the rabbit that took off in front of him. Good thing, he’s not a hunting dog.
All the state parks we have visited have been really clean and quiet. There are inexpensive to stay and the RV sites are really large in comparison to most RV park sites. Downside is full hookups are hard to come by, but most of the NM parks offer electric at a minimum.
After one night in the Bottomless lakes we moved onto Brantley Lake State Park. Brantley is located in between Artesia and Carlsbad. It was another nice state park with the roomiest sites yet. There are a few trails to hike and a huge lake. You can fish this lake, but it is strictly a catch and release policy. Apparently, the DDT levels are too high in the fish. Yes, DDT that same chemical that has been banned in the US since 1972. Since the water levels have been up in recent years this ban may be released in the future, but it was still in effect when we were there.
