Percha Dam State Park

Percha Dam State Park quickly became one our favorite state parks near Las Cruces.  It is 56 miles from our house to the entrance into the park.  One of the best attributes was the abundance of shade trees.  Although there are plenty of sites at Leaseburg Dam State Park and good hiking trails, there is little shade at the campsites.  Percha has a lot of shade and easy pull through sites.  Again, it is recommended to make reservations ahead of time, especially in the winter when the "snowbirds from the North" begin to arrive.

Our campsite with my truck and kayak.

This is a center area between the campsites.

My former training in entomology influenced me for this photograph.  It is an antlion trap. They dig into the sand and create a trap into which ants wander.  Once an ant is in the trap the ant tries desparately to climb out.  The ant keeps sliding towards the bottom and into the clutches of the antlion.

 This creature came to me on his own.  It is a large bark beetle.  They are rather harmless to humans, as long as you are not too squimish.  The red mark on my wrist was not made by the beetle.

I placed my friendly bark beetle on a nearby cottonwood tree. Cottonwoods are numerous in the area, and probably the species from which it emerged.

We did not just see insects.  There was plenty of wild life, and one evening we saw a couple of cottontail rabbits jumping up and down.  I suspect it was some sort of mating ritual.  By the time I got my camera one had wandered off.  They are well camofloughed so you will need to look closely to see this one.

In case you think New Mexico is just desert, here is a picture of a swamp within the park.  We could hear bullfrogs croaking at night. What a treat in the desert.

This a great view of Percha Dam.  These dams are built along the Rio Grande to divert water to the farms.  There is a lot of farm land along the Rio, and a great variety of crops.  The most famous of the crops are peppers.  You have to be careful when ordering food because the add them to everything.

This is the dry camp area.  These site do not have electric or water hook-ups, but they are really nicely kept sites.

This display board shows many recreational areas close to Percha Dam State Park.  We visited several of them, and I'll put a couple of pictures on the blog for my visitors.

This is some farmland just outside Percha.  Here they are growing alfalfa hay, and just down the road they were growing onions and sweet corn.