Cottonwood Picnic Area

Adventure Location: Slaughter Canyon Road, south of Carlsbad, NM

 Leaving Carlsbad heading toward Gumo you can easily pass a road sign that does not look interesting at all. It would be a significant mistake. Naturally the Team did not know what was down the road but we certainly found out.  It will take this blog entry and up to two more to cover what we found for folks pleasure.

The road sign only talks about Slaughter Cave but there are two canyons with serious hikes available.  But well before you get to the main attraction you encounter a wonderful picnic area with a great mile and a half walk to a small lake.

The Cottonwood picnic area has a vault toilet and water available.  The trail to the dam starts next to the restroom.  It would be handled by someone with crutches or a cane.  It would be a challenge due to the length of the trail

 The trail was in good shape and a very pleasant walk to make in the late morning coolness.  There was no hurry so meandering made the walk longer than is actually needed for a speedy walker.  When you get toward the end, there is a glimpse of the small concrete dam that forms the irrigation lake.  By stepping up onto the dam you can get a good view of the lake.

The walk back was just a nice and gives you a chance to notice the other smaller ponds down in the grasses.  Apparently from all the trails in the grass, a lot of critters use these ponds for their drinking water.

When the Team arrived back at the parking lot, another trail was noticed.  It heads down to a pier to
help do some bird watching.

 This next picture was taken by the hand rail on the pier and the camera did not break yet.

And this was just the start of a very long day of adventures for the Team.  By now it had already been a very successful day of trying to have tooooo much fun.  The OFM.