Eagle Nest Lake State Park

State Park Since 2004 On A Privately Built 1918 Irrigation Reservoir In The Moreno Valley At 8,200 Feet, On The Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway Between Angel Fire And Red River · Eagle Nest, New Mexico

Eagle Nest Lake sits at 8,200 feet in the Moreno Valley, a high grassy basin ringed by the Sangre de Cristo with Wheeler Peak on its western wall. The dam was built privately in 1918 to irrigate farmland down the Cimarron, which makes it one of the oldest large private dams in the country, and the state only bought the lake and made it a park in 2004. What it offers is straightforward: open water at high altitude, stocked rainbow trout and kokanee salmon, a boat ramp, a campground, and a great deal of sky. The Enchanted Circle byway runs along its shore, so far more people drive past it than stop, and the pullouts on US 64 give most of the view for free. In winter it freezes hard enough for ice fishing, which almost nowhere else in New Mexico does. Elk come down into the Moreno Valley meadows at dawn and dusk and are seen from the highway for nothing, osprey and bald eagles work the water, and the short season is the real constraint - nights are cold here in July and the campground water is off for most of the year.

42 Marina Way, Eagle Nest, Eagle Nest, New Mexico, 87718, United States

Open all year, day and night, with a day-use fee collected at the entrance. The visitor centre keeps daytime hours and closes in parts of winter. The campground operates roughly from late spring to autumn with water off outside that. Boat ramps are usable when the lake is open water; it freezes hard in winter and ice fishing takes over. US 64 past the lake is plowed but ices, and the Enchanted Circle can be difficult in storms.

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