The Water Is Gone!

 After a calm start from Santa Rosa Lake, we got ourselves back on the trusty I-40. It didn't take long and we saw something that seemed unbelievable the longer we looked at it.

Antelopes beside the Highway

Due to a construction site where one of the lanes was shut down a huge 29mile long line of eastbound vehicles, most of them trucks, had piled up literally bumper to bumper.

It must have been taken hours to get through that construction zone.

The I-40 is partly in terrible shape with other parts redone not long ago. Seeing that amount of truck traffic one understands how the road service is exposed to damage.

Albuquerque

From Albuquerque we went onto the much better I-25.

I-25 south

Took a rest stop for lunch then reached exit 89 towards the Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the South Monticello sites. 

This part of the park seemed to be the one with most of the pull-thrus. 

Our great site in the park

And we ended up in the biggest of them all. In fact it is big enough for 2 rigs our size. Booked 2 nights again and settled in. I took Dixie for a walk towards the "Lake" where I was awestruck about the total absence of water. 

Brown flats instead of water

There is absolutely no water in this northern part of the lake. In fact, I could see small shrubs growing on what once was the bottom of the lake. Instead of blue water I looked at extensive brown flats. This is illustrating the extend of the drought lasting for years.

Nevertheless, we had just started enjoying our beautiful site which is located directly alongside the service building. 

Service Building

This will be a great place to spend 2 nights at.