Our summer of rambling around New Mexico drew to a close at Clayton Lake State Park with the Oklahoma prairie beckoning just beyond the border. The park lies on the edge of the Great Plains with the surrounding area featuring grasslands, sandstone bluffs, and volcanic rocks. We rolled into Clayton Lake hoping to find an available space to park through the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Discovering the park to be nearly empty, we practically had our choice of sites. This worked out for the best as the non-electric sites are fairly small and not very level, so uncovering a suitable location took a bit of exploration.

Another camper kindly directed us to a couple of sites in the Chicano Beach Loop located at the rear edge of the park which she claimed to be her second favorite spot (she was already parked in her first choice between the Peach Point and Rock Garden loops). The road leading around the camping areas is in rough condition, but nothing a cautious driver moving at a reasonable speed can’t manage. If you have a larger RV, it would definitely be easier to scout in a tow car if possible or reserve an electric site in advance. The electric reservation sites are near the entrance and although close together, feature large flat parking spaces.

We bumped our way around the crumbling access road and into Chicano Beach, which despite the name does not have an actual shoreline in the campground. Visitors definitely enjoy an expansive view of Clayton Lake from the sites perched atop the gently sloping cliffs lining the water. Speaking of water – if you need to fill your tank on your way into the campground, be sure to stop at the spigot between the visitor center and the bathhouse; you won’t find any water available in the camping loops. We chose one of the two sites at Chicano Beach and settled in for our final week in New Mexico, for this year of travel anyway.

The weather and location combined to recreate an amalgamation of Villanueva and Storrie Lake state parks, with the cliff camping, warm dry air, and large lake as the focal point. Gone were the chilly nights and foggy mornings of Coyote Creek, Eagle Nest, Sugarite Canyon, and Cimarron. The New Mexico sun blazed in full force during the day with the still familiar storms rolling in almost daily, although appearing later and later in the evenings and occasionally overnight. Flies and mosquitoes were out in full force, apparently common this time of year, a constant reminder to keep the lights off at night if we wanted to sleep with the windows open and not be overrun by flying nuisances. We still had plenty of sunlight during the day to make full use of the solar panels, which is something we’ll definitely miss as we make our way east for the winter. When not clouded over, the night sky was sparkling and pristine covering us in a twinkling blanket of starlight. Thanks to its remote location, the area is devoid of light pollution which allows unadulterated viewing of distant planets and constellations. Clayton Lake features an observatory, although it didn’t appear to be in use during our visit which seems like a missed opportunity.

Clayton Lake formed in the 1970s thanks to the construction of an earthen dam across Seneca Creek. The land was largely dry before the dam, with the creek only materializing during periods of heavy rain. Farming had already halted in the area by 1930 as a result of the Dust Bowl, and the Kiowa Grasslands were established to aid in the recovery from this national disaster. The nearby town of Clayton was founded in 1887 in large part due to the influx of business associated with the railroad. Black Jack Ketchum, one of the infamous train robbers who passed through Cimarron as mentioned in one of our previous posts, was eventually hanged in Clayton in 1899.

We’re about to embark on a brief stroll through history, if you’d like to come along.  Before the train brought settlement in the 1800s, the land that is now Clayton Lake State Park was the traditional territory of the Jicarilla Apache and Comanche. These mobile, partially nomadic groups roamed the region hunting and gathering, as well as raising corn and other crops to a limited degree. In the centuries preceding the Apache and Comanche, the state park land was home to the earliest known occupation periods in North America. The Plains Village cultural period from A.D. 1000 to 1500 introduced shelters constructed of upright stone slabs as well as the first evidence of pottery. The people of the Plains Woodland period lasting from A.D. 200 to 1000 farmed, hunted, gathered, and established small villages with circular masonry dwellings. The Paleoindian period dates as far back as 9500 B.C. and evidence found in Pigeon Cliffs further down Seneca Creek reveals signs of life from this time, mainly arrowheads and other stone artifacts.

Stepping even further back in time about 100 million years or so, the land around Clayton Lake was the shoreline of a vast inland sea during the Cretaceous Period which split what we now recognize as North America in two, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Dinosaurs actively roamed this ancient freeway in search of food (as opposed to the docile, sedentary dinosaurs of today that mostly rely on take-out and fast food delivery) leaving behind tracks in the soft, muddy soil. Some of these tracks were preserved in the Pajarito Shale and Mesa Rica Sandstone layers and uncovered in 1982 when Clayton Lake overflowed into the spillway and washed away the final layer of sediment obscuring the tracks.

Footprints of both plant-eating behemoths and smaller, more agile meat-eaters mingle, the remnants of which are captured in stone and displayed for curious visitors beside the dam at Clayton Lake. About 500 footprints have been reported and mapped at Clayton Lake representing three possible species. Nearly 90% of the tracks belong to ornithopod dinosaurs, large duck-billed herbivores like the iguanodon with evidence of specimens ranging in size from a foot-long baby to 30-foot long adults. The remaining tracks are primarily carnivore footprints belonging to theropod dinosaurs walking on two legs and featuring thin, pointed toes. Other fossils in the area include prehistoric worm burrows, plant impressions, and crocodile tracks left behind when claws scraped mud while swimming in shallow water. One of the most interesting and rare tracks is most likely a tail mark, left behind when a dinosaur may have slipped in the mud and employed its tail for balance.

If you’re looking for a cell signal while in the park, the area beside the dinosaur tracks is probably your best bet. We made an almost daily bike ride from Chicano Beach to the dinosaur tracks to use the “internet cafe” and prepare for our venture into Oklahoma. I couldn’t overlook the glaring juxtaposition of modern digital technology beside tracks left from creatures living a hundred million years ago, especially considering this was the one and only place in the entire park where we could connect to the internet. I’m not sure what this says about modern society, if anything, so maybe I’ll let a real philosopher ponder the finer points of this mismatched combination.

I couldn’t park beside a lake for a full week without fishing, certainly not on our last stop in New Mexico. Clayton Lake is open for fishing from March to October and closed during the winter because the lake serves as an important stopover location for migratory waterfowl. The weather once again conspired against my fishing desires, as the warm temperatures and continued near-drought conditions affected the fish hiding in the lake.

We could clearly see and hear fish slapping the water behind our campsite on a couple of cooler mornings, but I had no luck enticing much of anything from the lake. It didn’t help matters that I was out of the tried and true PowerBait used to catch trout through most of the summer, and couldn’t find any when we stopped to restock groceries on our way into the park. Nothing seemed interested in spinners, Pistol Pete flies, grub lures, rubber worms, artificial baitfish lures, or any of the wet flies I’m learning to tie. Anglers can supposedly find trophy bass in Clayton Lake, with a daily limit of two measuring 14 inches or longer, but I didn’t catch any nor did anyone else that I saw for that matter. I managed to catch one single bluegill desperate for lunch on a tiny imitation frog lure, which was my lone fish for the entire week. It was delicious.

Clayton Lake remained quiet during our entire stay even through the holiday weekend. More sites filled as Labor Day approached, but the park was far from filled to capacity. Clayton Lake seemed to be a fitting endpoint to our summer in New Mexico, exhibiting many of the features we’ve grown to love and appreciate over the past few months – bright sunny days, often steady breezes, brief rainstorms, intense thunder and lightning, general lack of humidity, amazing sunsets, fishing opportunities, brilliant starry nights, impressive views, and subtle yet profound beauty. While Clayton Lake may not have been one of our favorite parks overall, it remains a distinct representation of New Mexico. We ended our stay filled with fond memories of the summer and a deeply held newfound appreciation for the Land of Enchantment.

We grabbed breakfast, an excellent cup of coffee, and a bag of beans roasted and blended on location from Mock’s Crossroads Coffee Mill on our way out of town after Labor Day. We were once again entering reservation-travel mode, knowing we’d have a designated spot waiting for us in Oklahoma which removed the mild anxiety of playing the odds with first-come, first-served sites across the New Mexico state parks and allowed a bit more leisure time on a designated travel day. The decor at Mock’s is distinctly more western complete with six shooters as part of the logo (not to mention their slogan of “Stop in for a Shot or Two”), reinforcing the image of the wild west. We may have been heading east while still firmly traveling through the land of cowboys, cattle, and ranches, but something told us New Mexico would remain uniquely mysterious and infinitely dear as we fired up the RV and bid the state a temporary farewell.

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Links to Blog Posts about the New Mexico Parks We Visited

Southeast
Bottomless Lakes – beautiful park with many tiny turquoise lakes
Brantley Lake – conveniently close to Carlsbad, multiple camping loops around the lake

Northwest
Navajo Lake – huge park, very popular for fishing and boating, close to Colorado
Heron Lake – quiet park with tons of camping sites, sailing on lake possible depending on water levels

Northeast
Coyote Creek – excellent stream fishing in a mountain setting (when the weather cooperates)
Villanueva – unique blufftop camping and sites along the Pecos River
Storrie Lake – convenient stop between locations, motorized boats allowed on lake
Eagle Nest – small campground beside Eagle Nest Lake and less than two miles to town
Cimarron Canyon – long park along the Cimarron River with heavily stocked Gravel Pit Lakes at the eastern end
Sugarite Canyon – over 15 miles of hiking trails, fishing at Lake Maloya, close to Colorado, and fantastic views from the Soda Pocket Campground
Clayton Lake – rustic camping loops with a large lake and dinosaur tracks, close to Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma

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SOURCES

The details on dinosaurs, early civilizations, and the Clayton Lake Dam came from the following sources:
1. The Clayton Lake State Park entry on the Oh Ranger website – http://www.ohranger.com/nm/clayton-lake/history-and-culture
2. The Clayton Lake State Park entry on the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources site – https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/tour/state/clayton_lake/home.html
3. The Clayton Lake entry on the UCMP Berkeley site – http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/cretaceous/clayton.html