Sumner Lake SP, NM - Apr 2011

After leaving San Antonio, we made our way back to Brantley Lake SP near Carlsbad, NM. We stayed there for three weeks and didn't do much exploring. Scotty was sick with some kind of stomach virus and we made three trips into Carlsbad to take him to the vets, but he recovered. Then, he started having coughing fits and we had to increase his heart medications and add a new one to the mix. He's holding his own, but it's hard for us to watch as he goes through the same decline as Rudy did. We just keep reminding ourselves to enjoy the time we have left with him. Here he is sniffing a bluebonnet.
We left Brantley Lake at the beginning of April and headed to another New Mexico State Park -- Sumner Lake near Fort Sumner. We stayed in the Eastside campground and really liked our site with it's view to the lake. The park is pretty far out in the boonies, so, on many days, we were the only people in the campground. It was peaceful and quiet and the stars at night -- wow! We hiked a lot around the park. This was a short trail at the base of the dam and alongside the Pecos River.
Me doing a little rock surfing while on one of our hikes.
The campground had critters -- pesky raccoons that got into the trash cans every night. We also had several small herds of deer that wandered through daily. I put out my bird feeder and had no less than a dozen different types of birds come to visit.
One evening at dusk, the full moon looked particularly lovely -- shrouded in pale pink clouds.
We were parked near an overlook, so every evening we took a stroll to watch the sun go down over the lake. Many nights had pretty sunsets. This one was especially colorful with it's soft pastel clouds reflected in the water.
Another sunset was fiery red.