Round Rio Rancho

We’ve visited Fenton Lake many times to paddle our kayak in circles around its perimeter. It’s good exercise, there’s a certain zen you get to experience gliding quietly just inches above the water with an expanse of blue sky above, and besides, you get to annoy the people fishing on the sides. This January was the first time we got to spend the night in the campground.
Fenton Lake State Park’s campground is open year round. In the winter most of their campground loops are blocked off. Only Loop D is accessible, but fortunately that one has electrical hookups (30 amp). There are just 6 spaces located in a shady grove of 50 ft tall pines trees. The picnic tables are all in the open, the roads are dirt and the pads are dirt covered with pine needles. There is a vault toilet nearby. Potable water faucets are at each site but are turned off in the winter. There is a working one near the lake, not far away.

With the elevation just under 8000 ft, temperatures peaked in the low 40’s and at night lows were in the teens. For years, Winter visitors to Fenton Lake have enjoyed ice fishing (although we can’t imagine it’s really about the fishing. It’s really about the drinking while waiting for the fish to do something.) When we visited however, although there was a solid layer of ice covering most of the lake, the perimeter was still liquid and there were many signs warning that geologic forces (read, volcanic) were warming the water and to stay the heck off the ice. There were patches of snow in the shade and on the north-facing slopes adjoining the lake. We visited on a weekday, and we were the only patrons in the campground, and only a few hardy souls visited the day use area.

During the summer this park is very busy, with fields of grass and flowers, a small creek feeding the lake, a playground, lots of campers, fishermen surrounding the lake, plus a few in small boats or these weird one-person pontoon things, and occasionally – a kayak. We will visit again in the summer and add another report when things are warm and green again. We wanted to visit during the winter since Fenton Lake State Park is one of the few year-round campgrounds in the area.

Fenton Lake State Park is located at 7900 feet elevation in the Jemez Mountains, about 65 miles Northwest of Rio Rancho,  and about 10 miles off NM Route 4. The park consists of 700 acres of Ponderosa Pine forest and high mountain meadow land, plus about 35 acres of lake. The fishing’s good, and the lake’s stocked regularly with rainbow and brown trout. Supposedly, the fishing’s even better during the winter, (through 2 feet of ice) but I doubt I’ll ever verify that… Small boats are allowed on the lake, but only paddle-powered ones.

There’s a great campground in the park, with 40 developed sites – some with hookups, a playground, a group shelter and restrooms.

Although Cochiti Lake is a shorter distance from Rio Rancho (and a much larger lake), if you want more of a mountain-with-pine-trees environment in which to do some fishing and paddling, Fenton Lake’s the closest.

Watch as the foliage changes with elevation…It’s pretty interesting… Keep your eye out for the hummingbird too!