Low water
I had a quiet and restful night last night, in other words, it was a regular night of boondocking at Elephant Butte State Park.
They were predicting some clouds for this morning, which might lead to a nice sunrise, but when I poked my head out the door before the sun came up, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, so I went back to bed. In the Fall, like it is now, I don't go back to bed because I'm sleepy; I go back to bed because it's warm in bed, so I don't have to run my furnace and burn up expensive propane. So normally I will stay in bed until the sun starts warming up the camper, and that saves money, and saving money keeps me on the road longer.
I don't recall ever seeing the water this low at Elephant Butte State Park. The water is so low that it changes the whole look of the place. What used to be islands in the middle of the lake have become just more beach area that you can drive on. And areas where the water used to come up near the tree line, where I normally camp, the water is now a 10-minute walk from what used to be the shoreline.
All of this, of course, has no impact on me, but just like I've mentioned about the number of people I saw at Storrie Lake State Park and Santa Rosa State Park, I can now say the same thing about Elephant Butte State Park, which is, there aren't many people at all around here.
I'll be here for the weekend, so it will be interesting to see if that makes a difference in the number of people visiting the park. I expect there to be approximately the same number of boaters launching at the Elephant, since the rules and fee changes didn't affect them very much. And day use by the locals may not change at all, but I'll be really interested in what it does to the camping. Since the fee increases mostly affect people who stay here overnight.
Theboondork
That little hill in the middle of the picture used to be an island a couple of hundred yards from the shore. In fact, all the sand you see in the foreground where I'm standing used to be underwater.
the white rocks show the area that used to be underwater. The fishermen in the boat gives you some idea about how far down the water level is now.
The most clouds I've seen in the sky since I got here.
A cloudless sunrise. I'm doing the best I can with what little nature is giving me.