Category Archives: National Grasslands

Intentional Wanderings; The Grasslands of NE New Mexico

September 15-17, 2024

Sometimes short adventures become the most memorable.  

After pouring over our NM map, looking for new places to camp, based on a recommendation from good friends we decided to visit Charette Lakes.  Located within the grasslands of NE New Mexico, this would be our kind of country. About time to check out the Shortgrass Prairie.  

Planning to be gone 4-5 days, and as long as we were headed to Charette, why not also visit Clayton Lake State Park and Kiowa National Grasslands! The weather certainly looked good for a week, allowing easy access on backcountry 2-track dirt roads.

Felix at home just west of Lower Charette Lake

Charette Lakes

Arriving at Charette Lakes mid-day allowed plenty of time to set up camp with a view of the Lower (larger) lake, before heading off, on foot, to wander these lush grasslands. It seemed like Spring ….. so many wildflowers in bloom! Late afternoon saw a mass exodus of fisherpeople, and by 5:30 pm we pretty much had the entire area to ourselves! Hiking about some more, we encountered a small group of pronghorn, gazed skyward as hungry migratory ducks and Canada geese flew in to Upper Charette Lake, observed a number of beautiful kestrels, and enjoyed the antics of a coot flotilla on the lower lake. 

The wind blew, the rains poured, but we managed several hikes across the short grass prairie surrounding Charette Lakes

By 6:00 pm we got caught in a downpour! Wait! This wasn’t supposed to happen! But the rain and gusty winds persisted until morning, as heavy gray clouds continued to roll by.

We found most of the migratory birds on and feeding at Upper Charette Lake. Mostly marshy and shallow, this small lake had more food for hungry birds than the larger and deeper Lower Charette a lake.

After rechecking the weather forecast, it seemed like this storm was headed north, well out of the area we planned to visit next ….. Clayton Lake State Park, in the extreme NE corner of NM, bordering TX.  

We shook out our rain gear, toweled off the dog, packed up Felix and headed out, dropping down the basalt escarpment we ascended yesterday, thankful this section of steep decline was paved. 

Clayton Lake State Park

Excited to see more of the grasslands and the famous Dinosaur Trackways, a historic landmark site managed by the State Park, we approached from Raton, NM, very close to the Colorado border. Traveling about 50+/- miles SE (leaving the rain behind), the surrounding shortgrass prairie was dotted with a number of resting volcanoes, including Capulin (managed by the National Park Service). 

Our route from Charette Lakes to Clayton Lake State Park and Dinosaur Trackways passed through more shortgrass prairie habitat adjoining a cluster of Forest Service-managed grasslands (Kiowa in NM; Rita Blanca in TX; Cimarron in KS; Comanche in CO), remnants of the vast “sea” of grasslands that used to be.

Arriving at Clayton Lake SP about noon, we quickly parked Felix, then walked the 1/4 mile to the Dino Trackways! Very, very cool. It’s hard to imagine that 100 million years ago this area of NM/TX was a beach along the western side of a great inland sea! Paleontologists believe the dinosaur tracks were made by both plant and meat eaters that migrated north and south along this sandy beach. The tracks showed the plant eaters likely moved about in herds as they foraged for food. There were also foot long tube worm tunnels and some pretty interesting mud cracks preserved in today’s hard sandstone. 

At Clayton Lake State Park we learned about the 100 million years old dinosaur tracks uncovered during the construction of the Clayton Lake emergency spillway, found some wind-stunted and deformed plants lining the the earthen dam, discovered a new grasshopper and beetle, and enjoyed watching terns perform aerobatic stunts over the lake.

Dinner time and it began raining (what!), varying from drizzle to deluge, we started to have second thoughts about tomorrow’s access into Mills Canyon on the Kiowa National Grasslands. But the radar showed this area wasn’t getting rain, and we felt it was worth a try (as long as we were so close!).

One of many cows that graze the grasslands on allotments that often span private, State and Federal lands.

Clayton Lake to Mills Canyon (Kiowa NG)

Early morning sunrise was gorgeous, then from who-knows-where, storm clouds rumbled in, and kept coming nearly the entire way to the Kiowa. But nearing our arrival, the clouds cleared out and things looked promising; so much so that we agreed to try our luck. 

Long abandoned and “melting” into the soil, the shortgrass prairie saw its share of homesteaders back in the middle to late 1800s.

The Grasslands boundary was six miles off the pavement, on dirt and gravel ranch roads. Once on the Grasslands 2-track access to the campground our luck nearly ran out. Down down down the road went, saturated with the last several days of pouring rain. But we didn’t really know this, and began the descent. It wasn’t 200 slippery yards later, Roy’s executive decision to reverse course probably saved us being stranded somewhere for days! As he began backing Felix up the sloppy slick road, conditions somehow felt worse. Felix had a mind of his own and began weaving all over the place, half the time getting stuck in the ruts we made during our descent. 

What looks like a lonely landscape is actually lush and thriving grasslands thanks, in part, to an abundance of rain this year. And Wow! Did it ever rain!

Finally after 30 minutes of careful maneuvering, Roy managed to coax the RV back to the Grasslands boundary. Our relief to be back on somewhat solid ground overshadowed our disappointment in not being able to visit this dramatic canyon area. But we were safe even though both the truck and Felix were coated above the axles with 6-8 inches of mucky sticky clay. 

So, with this area and any other likely destinations soaking wet, and only being 3 hours from home, we agreed to end this crazy camping trip, promising ourselves to return another day. Turns out the decision was wise, as we drove through one downpour after another on the way home! (The rain was so hard at times, visibility was zip! But the good news was it rained so hard that most of that mucky sticky clay got washed away.)

The End…..

And that was the ending to a short, yet memorable trip. Of course by the time we got home, the clouds had cleared totally, and we haven’t had a drop of rain since! Go figure! 

A pronghorn wary of our presence, passing with a herd between Upper and Lower Charette Lakes.


As always, thanks for stopping by!