Camping Adventure at Heron Lake
A couple of weeks ago, my friends Dorje and Bailey, and Dorje's brother, Dylan, who was visiting from München, made plans with us to go to Heron Lake and camp for the night. I was a bit skeptical about a lake in New Mexico, but Dorje and Baley assured me that it was beautiful.
Josie and I took care of the salads and Chorizo, while Dorje and Bailey got the booze and Kosher steaks. We were all really excited, all summer we had talked about going camping and we finally were doing it. We met them at a parking lot and hit the road. Dorje was ahead of me driving like he was on the Autobahn with an enormous cooler and kayaks strapped to the bed of his truck.
I was trying to keep up, but I wanted to take pictures of the landscape.
At one point Joise tried to snatch the camera from me because I was getting dangerous behind the wheel.
I swerved big time and his was the last picture I took before Josie actually did snatch the camera. I got a nice shot of these red rocks though. I loved how the colors changed from layer to layer.
Josie told me how the scenery out here reminded her of Utah. It made me want to visit.
I was thankful she was handling the camera.
This collection of red rocks is known as Ghost Ranch. It's trippy.
There is a natural amphitheater in one of the rock formations. We didn't
get to stop, however, because I was trying to keep up with Dorje who was doing 85.
Now that I'm looking at these pictures, I remember that the red rocks came out of nowhere.
Everything was brown and typical northern NM scenery, we went up a mountain
and on the descend these rocks were in the distance.
Little by little we left them behind. 
This was one of the last ones before we hit yet another landscape,
forest-y Colorado like.
There were a lot of pine trees in the distance along with the lake.
It was an oasis.
When we got to the lake it was time to find and agree on a campsite.
I parked Bella while Dorje and I surveyed our options.
We found the perfect site. It was the only one with a built in roof and bench for eating.
We also had a great view of the Lake and were only 20 steps from the shore. Josie and Bailey were so happy to be outside amongst the trees. So was I, it was so peaceful and the phrase of the day was "I'm recharging my batteries." It truly felt like that.
Dorje pondering when would be the perfect time for a Tequila shot.
I forgot how much I love to camp. We sat down, cracked beers and watched as 15 or so eagles (or hawks, I'm not really sure) glided and circled above us. They put on a show for about half an hour.
This was our view.
Happy Josie.
Dorje and Bailey on the haystack.
I'm starting to get loose.
Perfect timing for shooting the pellet gun.
I couldn't hit the can for the life of me.
Bailey could. So could Dorje and Dylan. Josie and I were just a bit outside.
After 4 shots of Tequila, Dorje and Dylan unloaded the Kayaks.
I was nervous, this was my first time. I wish the iPhone was waterproof because I rolled over twice on the damned thing and would of made good footage. 
We all hung out in the water for a while, and then we started to get the tents ready.
Josie is a pro.
Dorje and I fetched some wood to burn. We didn't know how much to buy. We asked the lady who was selling it if we should buy one or two bundles. She said, "one will do just fine, but if you're planning on partying all night, get two." We got two, loaded Bella and headed back.
We were set. We had a cooler full of booze and mammal flesh, wood to burn, cigs, and our tents ready.
The sun was setting and I caught this great flick of the girls and their Tecate.
Dorje chillin'.
sigh.
Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to start the grill before the sun went down.
A little excessive, but when you are camping there's no such thing as excessive.
We had Chorizo, regular steak, and Kosher steaks going. I was designated grill duty, a duty I did not mind at all.
see.
Josie and Bailey got the salads going. We had so much food. We had Dorje's famous potato salad,
Bialey's famous cabbage salad, Whole Foods potato salad, and some collard green salad we also picked up at the Foods.
I felt like a jester in the courtyard of a king.
Sunset.
more sunset.
I had to stop the tree hugger sunset nature appreciation fest and get back to my grill duty.
Medium rare everyone?
We ate with the car lights on.
Post dinner we rolled ourselves to the fire pit, Dylan got the fire going.
We sat there in our food comas, drank, smoked, and told stories.
It was the most relaxing thing I've done in a long long time. Fun too.
I wussed out and went to bed early because I had an interview the next morning back in Santa Fe.
Dorje made fun of me because we didn't finish the bottle, so did Dylan.
Sunrise from the tent.
All of us got up and headed straight for the lake one last time before we hit the road.
Bailey is in the distance on the Kayak. It felt so good to sit there in silence for a while.
Shortly after, we packed up and left promising to be back in September. Thanks to Dorje, Bailey and Dylan for a great time. Heron Lake was exactly what I needed.
posted by Enrique at
6:11 PM
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