Elephant Butte Lake Photo by Sherry Fletcher

Located on the southwestern shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir, Elephant Butte offers residents and visitors mild sunny winters, hot summers moderated by afternoon thunderstorms or lake breezes, and practically perfect weather in the spring and fall.

Elephant Butte State Park is the state’s largest park, with camping, boating, and fishing on the 43 mile long reservoir. Three marinas, numerous marine service and storage facilities along with restaurants, a golf course and lodging facilities serve the many folks who use the lake.

Special events and holidays rev up the tempo a bit, when up to 100,000 visitors venture in for the fun. Fireworks displays on Easter and Independence Day attract viewers from land and sea. Brightly lit boats provide a Parade of Lights between Christmas and New Year’s. The Balloon Regatta, a combination boat and balloon event, provides ballooning fun without a big city crowd. Numerous fishing tournaments, golf tournaments, sailing regattas, power boat and jet ski races provide competition along with recreation.

Beginning as a small retirement community, Elephant Butte is taking advantage of its lakeside attractions, and growing to meet the demand. Elephant Butte combines with its neighbor, Truth or Consequences, five miles away, to provide small town living with wide open opportunities.

Elephant Butte and nearby Truth of Consequences can be a destinations in themselves for those seeking a hot springs getaway or lake recreation, or they can serve as a base for area explorations. Many historic communities, including Williamsburg, Arrey, Derry, Winton/Chloride, Caballo, Cuchillo, Engle, Monticello/Placita, Las Palomas and Winston, add character to the varied Sierra County landscape. Hillsboro and Kingston are popular destinations about 32 miles west in the Black Range Mountains of the Gila National Forest. Fourteen miles south sits Caballo Lake State Park, and Percha Dam State Park is located on the Rio Grande river 20 miles south of T or C.

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Elephant Butte Lake
at sunset
Photo by Sherry Fletcher.

“Hi, how’s the weather? It’s snowing? Oh, too bad. We just got back from the lake!”

That’s my usual telephone conversation with relatives from the north on winter weekends. In its quieter months, Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico’s largest lake, offers solitude and clarity that summer users will never know. The bright, clear sun, the mirrored lake surface, the warm, still air, describe many days throughout the winter months.

Add an occasional fish-splash and lots of bird sightings. Winter at the lake features great blue herons, sandhill cranes, a returning osprey, seagulls, grebes, cormorants, and pelicans. Golden eagles live in McRae Canyon, feasting on fish when people go home. Lots of ducks and other waterfowl are startled to find anything on the water besides themselves.

And we are on the water. We pack a portable lunch to eat on the boat. Sometimes we have turkey and dressing and cranberries on the sailboat. No wind, so we motor to a secluded cove. Of course, all coves are secluded in December. On a high hill behind the cove, we watch a golden eagle perch on a cactus.

One winter Saturday we sailed a 14-foot day sailer. It didn’t have a cabin, so we made sandwiches and shoved off. We didn’t get far because there was little wind, but we floated, feeling the movement of the boat in the water, hearing the small water slaps echoing against the hull. Reclining in the boat, we were warmed by the sun, feeling protected from all troubles.

A canoe offers more intimate encounters with birds that frequent the lake in winter. Paddles quiet, we watch herons snoozing or fishing, sandhill cranes flying, screeching, overhead, or a stark black and white osprey roosting on a sailboat’s mast.

We’ve sailed on winter nights, telling the children the story of Orion and the bull. Taurus, the bull, was put into the sky to keep Orion the hunter from terrorizing the Seven Sisters. You can see their constellations in winter, first the Sisters (the Pleiades) rise in the eastern sky, then the bull (a large sharp triangle), then Orion, with his sword hanging from his belt. A classic winter story, best told with the visual aids twinkling in the sky.

Sometimes the lake is not so warm. Winds come blustering through the Narrows, whipping the water into whitecaps, swells and crashing waves. With the cold northern winds, our many layers of clothing are still not enough. Hot drinks from a thermos and a safe harbor provide a refuge for observing nature’s intensity.

Stormy or calm, the lake in winter offers beautiful panoramas, with Kettle Top and the eastern mesas in sharp relief. Sometimes it’s so blue and bright it hurts your eyes. With the sky blue and the lake blue, and the far-off mountains blue, the landscape needs a little brown dirt to separate the colors.

Sunsets come early, usually before we’re ready, pinking up the soft grey clouds before fading to dark.

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Elephant Butte Lake Annual Balloon Regatta Photo by Julia Cooper

The blue skies over Elephant Butte Lake will be dotted with CFO’s (colorful flying objects) during the weekend of April 21-22, 2001. Hot air balloons and kites will soar into the sky early Saturday morning, weather permitting, and will repeat their colorful performance early Sunday morning.

The Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta is a unique event in that each hot air balloon is teamed with a boat and its crew.  Balloons are launched along the beaches and, if the winds are right, they maneuver over the water, drop down over their assigned boat, retrieve a baton from a boat crew member, rise back into the air and head for a target. The balloonist dropping a baton closest to the target wins the competition.

On Saturday, after the balloons have landed, all eyes will be on the sky once again as the kite flying event gets underway at 10 a.m. and continues until 5 p.m.  The Kite Festival will be held at the Elephant Butte State Park Reservation Area. Entry to the park and the event is free and open to anyone who can fly a kite, from children to senior citizens.   A registration booth will be set up in the reservation area for all entrants.  Award certificates will be given for participation:   smallest kite, largest kite, best homemade kite, most beautiful kite, best of show, youngest overall flier, oldest overall flier, and field courtesy.  Entry levels will include pre-teen, teen, adult, and senior (55 and over).  Two Candy Drops are planned, one for children ages two through six, and another for children ages seven through ten.  The Festival will also include exhibitions, kite building workshops, and a kite hospital for those whose kites needing minor repairs.  See our website at www.patpendergrass.com/kite.html.  This is a “family affair,” so grab a blanket, pack a snack, and come out and fly your kites!

Vendors selling quality items will be setting up under a tent in a locale near Quality Inn.  T-shirts and pins made especially for the 21st Annual Balloon Regatta will be for sale throughout Saturday.

An outdoor barbeque on the grounds of Quality Inn begins at 6 p.m. Open to the public, the menu will include barbequed brisket, beans, cole slaw and an assortment of beverages.  Tickets are for sale at the chamber office. Balloonists and their crews will be at the barbeque, so you might get a chance to talk with the pilot who flies your favorite balloon!

This will be a fun, family-oriented day, so pack the kids and the car and head for Elephant Butte for a “butteyful” day or weekend.

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