This is a list of state parks and reserves in the New Mexico state park system. The system began with the establishment of Bottomless Lakes State Park on November 18, 1933. New Mexico currently has 35 state parks. It has been calculated that 70% of the state's population lives within 40 miles (64 km) of a New Mexico state park. The system as a whole saw 4.5 million visitors in 2009. The parks are managed by the New Mexico State Parks Division of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The mission of the State Parks Division is to "protect and enhance natural and cultural resources, provide first-class recreational and education facilities and opportunities, and promote public safety to benefit and enrich the lives of visitors."
| Park name | County or counties | Area in acres (ha) | Elevation | Date established |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluewater Lake State Park | Cibola | 70033000000000000003,000 acres (1,200 ha) | 70037400000000000007,400 ft (2,300 m) | 1937 | Encircles a 1,200-acre (490 ha) reservoir in the Zuni Mountains. |
| Bottomless Lakes State Park | Chaves | 70031400000000000001,400 acres (570 ha) | 70033500000000000003,500 ft (1,100 m) | 1933 | Encompasses eight cenotes whose greenish-blue water disguises their true depth. |
| Brantley Lake State Park | Eddy | 70033000000000000003,000 acres (1,200 ha) | 70033300000000000003,300 ft (1,000 m) | 1989 | Features New Mexico's southernmost lake, a 4,000-acre (1,600 ha) reservoir on the Pecos River. |
| Caballo Lake State Park | Sierra | 70035384000000000005,384 acres (2,179 ha) | 70034100000000000004,100 ft (1,200 m) | 1964 | Surrounds Caballo Lake, a 11,500-acre (4,700 ha) reservoir on the Rio Grande. |
| Cerrillos Hills State Park | Santa Fe | 70031116000000000001,116 acres (452 ha) | 2009 | Provides day-use recreation amidst 1,100 years of mining history. | |
| Cimarron Canyon State Park | Colfax | 7002378000000000000378 acres (153 ha) | 70037500000000000007,500 ft (2,300 m) | 1979 | Showcases the canyon of the Cimarron River and the Palisades Sill formation. |
| City of Rocks State Park | Grant | 70031230000000000001,230 acres (500 ha) | 70035250000000000005,250 ft (1,600 m) | 1953 | Features rock formations eroded out of 35 million year old volcanic ash, and a public observatory. |
| Clayton Lake State Park | Union | 7002471000000000000471 acres (191 ha) | 70035040000000000005,040 ft (1,540 m) | 1965 | Features a 170-acre (69 ha) reservoir and an extensive fossil trackway of dinosaur footprints. |
| Conchas Lake State Park | San Miguel | 7002359000000000000359 acres (145 ha) | 70034200000000000004,200 ft (1,300 m) | 1955 | Adjoins a 16,400-acre (6,600 ha) reservoir on the Canadian River. |
| Coyote Creek State Park | Mora | 7002462000000000000462 acres (187 ha) | 70037700000000000007,700 ft (2,300 m) | 1969 | Boasts the most densely stocked trout stream in New Mexico. |
| Eagle Nest Lake State Park | Colfax | 70033488000000000003,488 acres (1,412 ha) | 70038300000000000008,300 ft (2,500 m) | 2004 | Provides access to a 2,400-acre (970 ha) reservoir in a scenic mountain valley. |
| Elephant Butte Lake State Park | Sierra | 700424500000000000024,500 acres (9,900 ha) | 70034500000000000004,500 ft (1,400 m) | 1964 | Surrounds Elephant Butte Reservoir, the state's largest and most popular reservoir. |
| El Vado Lake State Park | Rio Arriba | 70031730000000000001,730 acres (700 ha) | 70036900000000000006,900 ft (2,100 m) | 1961 | Provides access to a 3,200-acre (1,300 ha) reservoir adjacent to Heron Lake State Park. |
| Fenton Lake State Park | Sandoval | 7002700000000000000700 acres (280 ha) | 70037900000000000007,900 ft (2,400 m) | 1984 | Encompasses a 37-acre (15 ha) reservoir surrounded by ponderosa pine forest. |
| Heron Lake State Park | Rio Arriba | 70034100000000000004,100 acres (1,700 ha) | 70037200000000000007,200 ft (2,200 m) | Provides access to a 5,900-acre (2,400 ha) no-wake reservoir adjacent to El Vado Lake State Park. | |
| Hyde Memorial State Park | Santa Fe | 7002350000000000000350 acres (140 ha) | 70038500000000000008,500 ft (2,600 m) | 1938 | Provides outdoor recreation amenities near Santa Fe. |
| Leasburg Dam State Park | Doña Ana | 7002293000000000000293 acres (119 ha) | 70034200000000000004,200 ft (1,300 m) | 1971 | Features a quiet stretch of the Rio Grande below a 1908 diversion dam. |
| Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park | Eddy | 70031500000000000001,500 acres (610 ha) | 70033200000000000003,200 ft (980 m) | 1967 | Comprises a zoo and botanical garden of wildlife native to the Chihuahuan Desert in the city of Carlsbad. |
| Manzano Mountains State Park | Torrance | 7002160000000000000160 acres (65 ha) | 70037600000000000007,600 ft (2,300 m) | 1973 | Protects part of the forested foothills of the Manzano Mountains. |
| Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park | Doña Ana | 7002305000000000000305 acres (123 ha) | 70033900000000000003,900 ft (1,200 m) | 2003 | Interprets a bosque on the Rio Grande and adjacent Chihuahuan Desert. |
| Morphy Lake State Park | Mora | 700130000000000000030 acres (12 ha) | 70038000000000000008,000 ft (2,400 m) | 1965 | Preserves a small, secluded lake in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. |
| Navajo Lake State Park | Rio Arriba and San Juan | 700421000000000000021,000 acres (8,500 ha) | 70036100000000000006,100 ft (1,900 m) | 1995 | Comprises three units on New Mexico's second-largest reservoir. |
| Oasis State Park | Roosevelt | 7002193000000000000193 acres (78 ha) | 70034100000000000004,100 ft (1,200 m) | 1961 | Features a fishing pond and sand dunes amidst the east-central plains. |
| Oliver Lee Memorial State Park | Otero | 7002640000000000000640 acres (260 ha) | 70034363000000000004,363 ft (1,330 m) | 1980 | Showcases a verdant canyon in the Sacramento Mountains and Oliver Lee's restored 1893 ranch house. |
| Pancho Villa State Park | Luna | 700160000000000000060 acres (24 ha) | 70034060000000000004,060 ft (1,240 m) | 1961 | Interprets the 1916 Battle of Columbus (Pancho Villa's raid onto U.S. soil) and the retaliatory Pancho Villa Expedition. |
| Percha Dam State Park | Sierra | 700180000000000000080 acres (32 ha) | 70034100000000000004,100 ft (1,200 m) | 1970 | Provides outdoor recreation on an impounded section of the Rio Grande. |
| Rio Grande Nature Center State Park | Bernalillo | 700138000000000000038 acres (15 ha) | 70035000000000000005,000 ft (1,500 m) | 1982 | Interprets a bosque on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. |
| Rockhound State Park | Luna | 70031100000000000001,100 acres (450 ha) | 70034500000000000004,500 ft (1,400 m) | 1965 | Allows mineral collecting for amateur geology in the Florida Mountains. |
| Santa Rosa Lake State Park | Guadalupe | 7002550000000000000550 acres (220 ha) | 70034800000000000004,800 ft (1,500 m) | Adjoins a 3,800-acre (1,500 ha) reservoir. | |
| Storrie Lake State Park | San Miguel | 700180000000000000080 acres (32 ha) | 70036600000000000006,600 ft (2,000 m) | 1960 | Adjoins a 1,100-acre (450 ha) reservoir in the Zuni Mountains. |
| Sugarite Canyon State Park | Colfax | 70033600000000000003,600 acres (1,500 ha) | 70036950000000000006,950 ft (2,120 m) | 1985 | Interprets the ruins of a historic early-20th-century coal-mining camp. |
| Sumner Lake State Park | De Baca | 70036700000000000006,700 acres (2,700 ha) | 70034300000000000004,300 ft (1,300 m) | 1966 | Adjoins a 4,500-acre (1,800 ha) reservoir on the Pecos River. |
| Ute Lake State Park | Quay | 70031500000000000001,500 acres (610 ha) | 70033900000000000003,900 ft (1,200 m) | 1964 | Adjoins an 8,200-acre (3,300 ha) reservoir on the Canadian River. |
| Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park | Colfax | 70038500000000000008,500 ft (2,600 m) | 2005 | Honors the veterans of the Vietnam War, the country's oldest such memorial (established 1968) and the only one comprising a whole state park. | |
| Villanueva State Park | San Miguel | 70031600000000000001,600 acres (650 ha) | 70035600000000000005,600 ft (1,700 m) | 1967 | Preserves a red sandstone canyon on the Pecos River. |
Famous quotes containing the words mexico, state and/or parks:
“I think New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I have ever had.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Wherever the State touches the personal life of the infant, the child, the youth, or the aged, helpless, defective in mind, body or moral nature, there the State enters “woman’s peculiar sphere,” her sphere of motherly succor and training, her sphere of sympathetic and self-sacrificing ministration to individual lives.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Related Phrases
Related Words