Elephant Butte Lake: Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway, New Mexico

SIDE TRIP 8 to Elephant Butte Lake is extremely easy: you'll drive right by the park's entrance in the city of Elephant Butte. The roads here are very well maintained, winding through an urban setting. Expect congestion on holidays and summer weekends.
45-mile-long ELEPHANT BUTTE LAKE is a huge body of water in a lower Sonoran desert setting. Named for an island formed by an ancient volcanic cone which resembles an elephant's head and back, it's New Mexico's largest and most popular lake. Elephant Butte Lake State Park offers a visitor's center, nearly year-round swimming beaches (note that beaches are not lifeguard-patrolled), picnic grills, three marinas, sailboat regattas, boating (boats must bear New Mexico registration), boat rentals (including house, pontoon, ski, sail, and jet ski), water skiing, jet skiing, scuba diving (mostly at the southern end), sailing (catamarans, small boats, and yachts), parasailing, golf, plentiful campsites (reservations are recommended however, particularly if you want one of the 111 sites with hookups), dump station, showers, nature trails, and more. Most of the facilities are handicap-accessible. It's also a fishing person's dream, yielding trophy-size bass along with northern pike, catfish, sunfish, bluegill, crappie, perch, walleye, carp, and - occasionally - rainbow trout. The lake has an hourglass shape with big upper and lower sections connected by a four-mile stretch of the Rio Grande named The Narrows. Guides can show newcomers how to catch largemouth to nine pounds, reap a harvest of white bass or release party balloons out on the water to take 20-pound-plus striped bass. Elephant Butte Lake has been selected as having the finest fishery program in the Southwestern United States. Many special events are held here, including a Balloon Regatta in April, (approximately) 4th Of July fireworks spectacular held the weekend closest to the holiday, New Year's boat parade, lakeside Easter sunrise services, fishing tournaments, chile cook-off, dragboat racing, sailing regattas, and more. The Damsite area, which is a designated Historic District, offers cabins, camping, a marina, store, and a restaurant. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of native rock. The Winding Roadside Picnic Grounds at the Damsite turns back the hands of time to a gentler, more relaxed era. 306-foot-high Elephant Butte Dam was constructed between 1911 and 1916 to control the downriver flooding which impeded settlement and farming of the Rio Grande valley, and to release water as needed for downriver irrigation. At the time of its completion it was the largest man-made dam in the world, an engineering marvel that held back the second-largest water impoundment in the United States. A quarter-mile roadway runs along the top; you'll cross over it on the side trip to Engle. The lake holds over 2 million acre-feet of water at capacity - enough to cover 4000 square miles with one foot of water - and has over 200 miles of shoreline along its 45-mile length and 4-mile width. A hydroelectric plant (three generators at 10.3 Megawatts each) was added to the dam in 1938-1940. Be sure to visit the visitor's center for an understanding of the interesting history of the area now under water.
	Please note that there is no gasoline available on the Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway west of Truth or Consequences / Williamsburg and Elephant Butte. This is the majority of the Trail, which runs through some very remote countryside. Fill your tank before you leave! Gasoline is available on Side Trip 5; or, if you choose to follow the Alternate Loop, gas is available at Silver City. Please also note that bridges between Caballo and Hillsboro bear twelve-foot, six-inch height restrictions; and the Forest Service advises not only that trailers over twenty feet are unsafe on Forest Development Road 150, but that low-clearance / non-four-wheel-drive vehicles travel that section of the Trail at their own risk.
What's on the web about Elephant Butte Lake State Park?
(This will take you to our Links page.)
Next stop on the E-Tour: a side trip to the nonexistent town of Engle...
	Enjoy the nature, history, and culture of southwest New Mexico - but don't disturb the natural, historical, and cultural sites. Do not remove, destroy, or deface anything on any site; strict laws protect artifacts on State, Federal, Indian, and private lands. Buying, selling, trading, or transporting these stolen items is also illegal. Please report looting and vandalism to federal land management authorities or the local sheriff. Hide all traces of your travels as the Apache hid their passing so these wildlands may remain unspoiled, the historical sites may remain true to their history, and the developed sites may remain clean and pleasant. Thank you.