Bluewater Creek Canyon Hike

A couple of weeks ago, Katie and I went to New Mexico - the temps there were great, and I love Bluewater Lake State Park.

There's a canyon that goes through the edge of the campgrounds and I always walk over and peer down.  Every year I get pictures of the canyon.  One year from the edge I could see a beaver dam, and you can see the water and all the green grasses and bushes.  This year I could see there's more water down there in the creek than in previous years.  Very lush and beautiful!

I've always wanted to hike down into the canyon.  It's not something I'd do alone, though, but this year I have a friend who lives near Albuquerque and he's a big hiker, so I asked him if he'd come up and do this canyon hike with me.  He said that'd be great - he's camped in some of the New Mexico State Parks, but never at Bluewater, so this would give him a chance to check out the park, too. 

This is where we were going - a close up from the edge of the canyon:

This is a normal shot without using the zoom lens:

The canyon cliff:

It was actually an easy hike up and down the canyon, and along the creek to the dam. The only problem was that the very nice temperatures at Bluewater changed after I was there a week, and when we hiked down into the canyon it was really super hot.  We also visited for a few hours after he arrived and the time got away from us - so we left on our hike a little later than we should have, at 11:30.  That was a mistake!  It would have been much cooler if we had left at 8:30.

Being a resident of the Albuquerque area he was used to the heat and the altitude, and he hardly broke a sweat, but I was really feeling the heat and the high altitude!  By the time the day was done, I had logged in over 10,000 steps on my GarminVivofit.  And I was HOT and TIRED! But it sure was fun.

He brought his hiking poles and suggested that I bring mine, too, and I was glad I did.  When I was climbing down the canyon and over the creek on the rocks and logs I really needed them!   Good grief, look at my feet - they really aren't that big!  That's funny...  😁

Isn't this beautiful?

Crossing the creek - I was really concentrating.  Thank goodness I didn't fall in!

There was a path, but sometimes the terrain looked like this, and we had to slog through water.  My shoes were wet and muddy, but that was okay because the water was cool and felt good!

And then we saw the dam in the distance:

And closer:

We got closer and closer and got a lot of pictures:

It looked like there were some patches on the wall of the dam.  There's lots and lots of water over on the other side.  I was happy that it stayed there:

When we got this close to the dam, he wanted to climb up to the top and get a closer look at the stone house up there and see if we could walk across the dam to the other side, which was close to my campsite.  He went over to check the difficulty of the climb up in case I wanted to check it out with him, but I decided to stay where I was.

I needed a rest, so he went up and in a while I could hear him talking to some people - he said later he was talking to a family floating in a boat on the other side of the dam.

I wondered what that red thing was - I've never noticed it from the other side of the dam.

He got some good shots of the little house up close and let me borrow them for this post...

...and also some shots of the top of the dam. As you can see, there's a locked gate there, which prevents people from crossing over into the campsite area.

It was so beautiful and peaceful down there, I wouldn't hesitate hiking down again - earlier in the day, or on a cooler day - but I still wouldn't want to go alone.  Anyway, it's always more fun to walk or hike with a friend, right?  :)

Thanks for coming up and visiting and taking the canyon hike with me - it was really fun!

And by the way, we saw where the beaver's dam had been in past years.  It was kind of broken up, but I got to see a beaver dam!  

I have two more posts after this of our Bluewater Lake SP visit which I'll publish this week, hopefully.  As usual at Bluewater, we had some gorgeous sunsets.  But then, unfortunately, the heat drove us to move again.

From me and Katie, have a great day, everyone!   😊😎😅