Needing a little outdoor time before settling in to watch football this afternoon, I ventured a few miles outside of Las Vegas, NM to a nearby national wildlife refuge.  Just an aside, Las Vegas, NM decidedly less exciting than Las Vegas, NV.  While it may have had an interesting past, today it’s basically a convenient pit stop about halfway between Santa Fe and Colorado.

Anyway, the wildlife refuge contains several small lakes, the largest of which is called McAllister.  Diversion of water from a nearby river usually keeps enough water in McAllister Lake to support a population of game fish.  However, starting a few years ago, long term drought in the region meant water was no longer available for the lake and it is now a shadow of it’s former self.

For comparision, here’s the lake as represented by 1:24,000 topographic map from the 70’s:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=35.52165,-105.18089&z=15&t=T

Now here it is in a more recent aerial photo:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=35.52165,-105.18089&z=15&t=S

It’s actually completely dry and the white is evaporated mineral deposits left behind.  Today, there was some water in it, but much of the lakebed was exposed revealing various debris left behind by careless or unfortunate anglers.  A walk around the lake was like visiting a museum devoted to the last 40 years of packaging of cheap beer.  Other objects were more interesting.

Here lies an old fishing pole, an empty Coors pull tab can, some undefined mechanical part and a half buried tackle box.  The meager remains of the lake are iced over in the background.  A pair of tumbleweeds have taken root in the silt.  Reminds me of photos I’ve seen of the Aral Sea in Central Asia where boats sit decaying miles from the current shoreline.

This photo captures a decades old boating mishap.  It is also a reminder that people flocked here not too long ago to spend an afternoon on the water and try their luck at the Rainbow Trout that were once stocked here.  I got there a few years too late for that.

Seeing all those empties sticking out of the mud really makes me wish people weren’t such jerks about littering.  Bud, Coors, Miller, Pepsi, Schlitz, Hamm’s; I even saw a Stroh’s and something called “Meister Brau Light” from Miller.  I shutter to think this is what it looks like beneath the lakes that I frequent back in Wisconsin.  C’mon, people, pack out your trash!  Keep America beautiful.