Las Vegas | New Mexico | Storrie Lake State Park

 

This was my view at Storrie Lake State Park.  It was a nice view - most of the time......   I'll come back to that later.  While I was exploring the town, I found some interesting old buildings, some still in use and some not.

 

YMCA - I don't know the last time I saw one of these.  It was still in use, as far as I could tell.

 

The Town Hall did not fare so well.  It sill looks like a usable, sturdy building in great shape, but they probably needed more space.  I couldn't tell if the Fire Department section was being used.  This town was built in the late 1800s, so there are lots of well-built old buildings.

 

There is one area with old homes  - some really nice buildings.  This has been turned into a bed and breakfast. 

 

This was right on the main plaza in town, but looks closed up for quite a while.

 

 

All the rest of the buildings looked in great shape and are being used.

 

On a street that has mostly abandoned buildings, there's an old railroad station, which is now the Visitor Center.

 

 

An old boarded-up church was nearby.....

 

 

And an old hotel which has seen better days and is now all fenced off.

 



 

So....  back to the park.  Not a bad park, most of the time, they do advertise a dump station but it's not in working order.  The locals seem to own the park.  If there are locals in the nicer section (with shade trees!), they will find another local to zip right in their spot when they leave.  Some of them leave their rig as long as they can and don't even inhabit it, they could be gone for days.  The sites with electric hookups are either all reservation or at the other end of the park they are parking-lot style, with no fire rings or picnic tables. 

 

 

One evening a group of young people came in, having a party with loud music, large speakers on the truck outside for maximum sound. It was probably rap or hip hop or something obnoxious like that, but ANY type of music that loud and thumping would have been just as bad.  They were having food and allowing foam plates and plastic bags to blow all over, not bothering to pick them up.  By the time they left, at 9 PM, after 5 long hours, I had a pounding headache.  I went outside and found the camp host wandering around and I asked him why he didn't do something.  The answer I got was that he told them to turn it down, and he claimed they did.  There was no variation in the volume for 5 hours and no ranger in sight, although I drove around looking for one. I'm shocked that this would happen in a state park and be allowed to continue for such a long time.  This is the first state park I've been to (in any state) that this has been allowed.  I have always promoted the state parks here in New Mexico since they're such a great deal, especially with the pass.  However, I can't support this one, the locals seem to rule and I will let them have it!