The name of the lake is derived from the pueblo Indians who claim
the land around it. They, and the Corps of Engineers who built the
dam, control the area and provide good public access. It's only a
hour's drive from Albuquerque and easy to find. In fact, from the
lake you can clearly see the Sandia mountains just east of New
Mexico's largest city. Roads from both the south and east provide
ready access.
This morning I launched my kayak at about 7:40, just as the sun was peeking between the mountains and low clouds off to the east. It was a little breezy at first, but by the time I paddled barely a half mile northward the winds died completely. The lake surface quickly became smooth and calm, making the work of paddling much easier.
From the launching area, near the west end of the massive dam, I headed upstream toward the cliffs and mountains. Those canyons of shear rock walls are spectacular, varying in color from black basalt to various shades of sandstone red. One can readily see the stratification of varyingly colored layers, some even looking like whitish sand. There's clear evidence of the volcanic past for this region of central New Mexico.
Only in the distance, higher in the mountains, does one see forest. Closer to the lake there is little scrub vegetation, grasses and sagebrush. Numerous snags ( dead bushes and sparsely distributed denuded trees ) serve as perches for a variety of raptors. I saw three falcons, a couple hawks and two birds that looked somewhat like vultures. Down on the water I startled three ducks and one gray cormorant-like bird I could not identify. But the most active wildlife encountered were fish, hundreds of surface feeding fish that looked a bit like bass, largemouth or something similar. I almost had one land in my boat as he broke water in pursuit of a bug or other morsel. The largest was about 16 inches or longer and must have weighed two to three pounds. Most were less than half that size.
Two to three miles upstream the lake narrows, hemmed in by 200-foot high vertical cliffs. Then one encounters a divide, one canyon heading off to the west and another northeast. The latter proved to be the main stream ( Rio Grande ) and the one to the west a dead-ended box canyon perhaps a half mile long.
Near that fork in the lake the water gets quite shallow, with muddy sandbars here and there, some topped with green grasses and reeds. In fact, the water in mid-lake was barely a foot deep. In places my shallow draft kayak dragged bottom and my paddle came up coated with mud. It became necessary to head for the cliffs on the western side to regain deeper water. Here too I noticed a lot of debris, mostly bits and pieces of vegetation, floating atop the muddy waters. And I saw lots of bubbles breaking the surface. Decaying matter on the lake bottom must be creating methane or other gasses that bubble up. It looks like that whole part of the lake is carbonated.
I paused to take a drink from the small water bottle I always carry, when something caught my eye along the shore in a pile of fractured rocks. Something was moving there and it took me a few seconds to see what it was. It was a gray ground squirrel foraging near the water's edge. Hmmm, I thought. That's raptor food. No wonder those birds were so plentiful. And in another moment, right behind that squirrel, up popped a tiny chipmunk. Those rock piles must be home to quite a few small critters. I sat still and just enjoyed the display of activity, the echoed sounds of screeching birds in the distance and the splashes of feeding fish. Really pleasant.
Few other folks appeared on the lake this morning. There were a few at the boat ramp area down south near the dam, and two men in an aluminum outboard-powered fishing boat. But this Tuesday morning I pretty much had the lake to myself, and that's just the way I like it. Only those few halfway back down the lake, and the occasional jet airliner high above the clouds, reminded me that civilization was not far away.
Most of the times past that I've paddled this closest lake to Albuquerque, I have encountered strong winds that make paddling more work than fun. Today, however, I was able to enjoy a calm and pretty serene wilderness experience on Cochiti Lake. It was great!
Cochiti Lake is located within the boundries of the Pueblo de Cochiti Nation on the Rio Grande about fifty miles upstream from Albuquerque. Cochiti is one of the four units for flood and sediment control on the Rio Grande, operating in conjunction with Galisteo, Jemez Canyon and Abiquiu Dams.
Cochiti Dam is one of the ten largest earthfill dams in the United States, containing more than 65,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock. It rises 251 feet above the Rio Grande streambed and stretches out more than five miles to impound waters of the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe Rivers. Its control tower is 260 feet above the streambed, the equivalent of a 20 story building. A 474-foot bridge connects the tower to the dam's main embankment.
Originally Cochiti was authorized only for flood and sediment control. However, officials of the state of New Mexico and counties surrounding the site expressed interest in a permanent pool for fish and wildlife enhancement and other recreational purposes. Congress then modified its authorization for Cochiti Lake to include a 1,200 surface acre lake for recreation. Water for this lake is imported from the Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande Basin via the San Juan Diversion Project across the Continental Divide. Construction of Cochiti Lake began in 1965; the main embankment was completed in 19.75; and the lake opened to the public in July, 1975. In 1976, the Cochiti Recreation are on the west side of the lake was opened to the public. Another recreation area, Tetilla Peak, on the east side of the lake was opened to the public in 1983.
A visitor's center on the west side of the lake, adjacent to the operations building is available to the public. Recreational facilities include campsites, electrical hookups, picnic sites, group shelters, restrooms/showers, drinking water, dump stations, universally accessible fishing area, and boat launching ramps. the Pueblo de Cochiti operates and maintains a small marina. Cochiti Lake is an all Federal project constructed at a cost of $94.4 million.
The project controls water form an 11,695 square- mile drainage area.