June 3rd 2023
We drove north to Cochiti Lake campground which is an Army Corps of Engineers campsite. This is our 20th campsite.
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/gateways/485
The dam which is an earthen filled dam began construction in 1965 and was opened in 1973. It is the 23rd largest dam in the world, one of ten largest earth dams of it's type in the USA and eleventh largest earth dam in the world.
Construction of the dam was opposed by the Cochiti Keres Pueblo people, who lost significant tracts of agricultural land as a result of the construction and subsequent pool filling. The Cochiti Keres filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the inundation of their lands, winning the suit. In 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers made a public apology to the Cochiti Keres .
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Yup folks, it's another dam! |
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| Pulled the plug, time to lower the lake level! |
The lake and dam which is part of the Rio Grande had been on local news the week before as the water levels were very high due to the above-average snow fall Colorado had this past Winter.
https://www.krqe.com/news/new-mexico/high-water-at-cochiti-lake-floods-beach-parking-lot-and-other-structures/
The beach area was completely flooded and the boat ramp area was about half it's normal size. I took some pictures when we arrived of half submerged street lights. The next few days I took pictures of the same light to see how much the lake had risen.
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| Google map before flood |
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| Street light and to the right the two vertical posts are the chimneys on a toilet building |
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| Saturday 3rd June 2023 |
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| Saturday, Monday Tuesday. Same light they have just removed the solar panel for safe keeping |
The loop we were parked on was a very new but was not the best as it was a very narrow pull through site with a seven inch slope side to side which made for a few adjustments to get us level. You would think a site designed and built recently would be level!
Each evening after John finished work we walked down to the boat ramp area and sat watching people use the lake for water activities such as stand up paddle boarding, kayaking, sailing and fishing. Some days there was a lot to see especially at the weekend and we had a few laughs watching people try water sports.
A few pictures from our stay at Cochiti -
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| Rainbow |
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| Each evening clouds would roll in and storms would threaten. It was very windy every afternoon too. |
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| Pena Blanca 5 miles from camp to make our first Amazon Box pickup. I miss Amazon deliveries! |
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| Campsite as seen from the observation deck |
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| There's Yem! |
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| Observation Deck |
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| Observation Deck |
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