Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge On The Pecos River, Established 1937; A Ramsar Wetland Of International Importance And The Site With More Recorded Dragonfly And Damselfly Species Than Anywhere Else In The Western Hemisphere · Roswell, New Mexico

Bitter Lake sits where the Pecos River, gypsum karst and desert spring water meet on the edge of Roswell, and the mixture produces something genuinely unusual: sinkhole lakes of different salinity sitting a few hundred metres apart, each with its own chemistry and its own species. That variety is why the refuge has recorded more dragonfly and damselfly species than any other site in the western hemisphere, over a hundred of them, and why it holds a Ramsar designation as a wetland of international importance. Several fish and snail species here live nowhere else on earth. It is better known locally for birds - tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese winter on the impoundments, which are managed by flooding and draining on a schedule - and an eight-mile auto tour loop runs through the ponds with pullouts and short trails. The two reasons to come are five months apart: dragonflies on the water in late summer, cranes and geese on the impoundments from November, and almost nothing in between.

4200 East Pine Lodge Road, Roswell, Roswell, New Mexico, 88201, United States

The auto tour loop and the trails are open daily from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset, all year. The visitor centre keeps shorter weekday daytime hours and is closed on federal holidays and often at weekends. Sections of the loop and individual impoundments close periodically for water management and for waterfowl hunting seasons in designated units. The salt flats and sinkhole areas have restricted access.

Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos