Marina on Navajo Lake
We spent a quiet day today. In the morning we drove to the other side of the San Juan River, and to the large earth dam that forms Navajo Lake. The dam is about 400 feet high. It has a huge spillway, but that was totally dry, and the upstream side was a long way above the water since the lake is very low.
We stopped at the park station, where the sign said closed, but the door was open, so we walked in and talked to the park ranger. He gave us a map of the park, and told us about some of the other parks in New Mexico. He also told us the best places to hike, and about some petroglyphs.
We drove to the area of the cliffs where he said the petroglyphs were, and explored up and down along the high rock walls. There were a few areas with petroglyphs, though almost all had names scratched into the rocks as well. We weren’t sure if the petroglyphs were old, or just recent creations. Two large horse carvings, one of an entire horse, and another of just a head looked suspiciously modern to me.
After lunch, which we ate by the river, we watched fishermen in boats floating down the river and through the tiny rapids that are here. I fell asleep in the warm sun at the edge of the river with my head on Enid’s lap.
When we got back the camp host was delivering wood to our neighbor. I asked her if I could buy wood, but she said they don’t sell it in this park, and she had just picked up the wood in other campsites and was giving it to our neighboring camper. She suggested just going out on the BLM land near here and collecting wood, and so that is what I did. With that we had a nice fire and wiener roast for supper tonight. It was in general a pretty relaxing day.