ute lake state park

If you are newly stationed at Cannon Air Force Base and want a day excursion, drive north to Logan NM and check out Ute Lake. It is only a 90 minute drive to get wet with a day of swimming, boating and rock jumping. However, if you envision lots of big trees overhanging the water, you will be disappointed. It is easy to navigate, has a great place to park your camper or just bring a tent. Fun for the whole family.

I have been going to Ute Lake for around 30 years now. I went there with my parents as a child and have many fond memories. I take my children there now as well. It is a large lake, with many activities. We have camped there in our camper, and in remote locations in a tent. One advantage to this lake is it is very close to the town on Logan. When we stay in a camper we often visit the Annex which is a very good restaurant. Ute lake is one of my favorite places to visit with many many happy family memories encompassing my entire life.

It's a nice enough place, practically the only place, to stop and stretch legs when traveling through this part of New Mexico. But unless you own a motorboat, and/or enjoy the incessant din of other peoples' motorboats, it makes for a poor outdoor experience. For this reason I strongly suggest visiting mid-week during the off season. Just a head's up, summers here are extremely hot. Autumn is ideal.The formal 'hiking' trails in the Roger's Park area are very limited, and hikers never lose sight of the adjacent trailer park. But despite that, we managed to have an interesting hike by exploring down the sandstone canyons to the lake.More so than the overdeveloped northern park sections, we quite enjoyed hiking around the Mine Canyon area on the south side of the lake. There were some navigation problems though: the park boundary is poorly marked; the park map is vague; and the fences on the ground don't seem to match up to mapped boundaries. And even around the remote-ish Mine Canyon access area there was no escape from the motorboat noise pollution and the blighted landscape of trailer parks across the lake.

We called before we went.was told it was going to be 58 dollars for a week. When we got there lady wasn't very nice and charged 98 instead wasn't able to find a good fishing spot unless we went 8 to 10 miles away from our camp site. Ask for a refund said don't give cash refunds left after 1 nite. Will not be back.

I really enjoyed the park me and my family had lots of fun swimming, jet skiing, boating, and the kids liked the cliffs. Not sure if they were suppose to be jumping off those cliffs into the lake but enjoyed that too. The park has really nice camp sites and the shower/bathrooms are excellent when your camping. Would I go back yes two thumbs up great family fun.

Ute Lake Park is a very nice park. The rangers work hard to keep it clean and are friendly. Boat ramps are in great shape and the camp sites are clean and mowed. Be sure to purchase a park pass first as they do check everyday.

We stopped here for lunch with our kids during summer heat of June. They have a shaded playground that you can let the kids play on ( we also did lunch at it ) and several shaded picnic tables. There are several entrances/sides to the park. We went to the northern one that you get to by driving right into town and then heading west. It costs $5 for entrance but they use the honor system and allow you to do an envelope drop.The park is well maintained with bathrooms right beside the playground.

So to begin with, do not try to get to this state park at night. There are not many lights to show signs, etc. We kinda found our way through the main entrance by sheer miracle. We set up camp and in the morning were delighted to have a very nice covered picnic area, and we were close to the bathrooms/showers. The lake is great fun to swim in, but if you go in the summer, you need to stay in the water...........we had to leave it was soooooooooooo hot! The park staff were not too helpful, but the area locals at tackle shops were very nice and helped a lot. There aren't many trees here...so once again, don't go in the mid summer months. All in all, it was a fun, adventurous trip.

The Logan Lodge people helped us so much as we have never been there before and on our way to Angel Fire. They gave us all our options and we took their advise. Few disappointments in the food, but that is was so busy I guess service couldn't keep up.

It was nice to fish but not sa lot of trees anywhere.