Elephant Butte Dam – New Mexico (GA78)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 22nd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Lake Minden RV Resort in Nicoulas, California. I expect to be here until May 26th.

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

 

 

In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

 

 

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

 

 

 

This entry was posted April 12, 2012…

 

 

 

Just east of my current location in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico is Elephant Butte Lake which was created by the Elephant Butte Dam.

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

In this first photo you can see the dam with the lake in the background and what remains of the Rio Grande River flowing to the left…

 

 

 

 

 

The next three photos show the views looking left to right from my vantage point overlooking the dam…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the dam was completed in 1916, it was classified as the second largest irrigation dam in the World. Here’s a plaque commemorating the event…

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s an historical marker describing the dam…

 

 

 

 

 

So where does the name Elephant Butte come from? This next photo shows the answer. Picture the island with water where it has been in the past. Someone with a great imagination thought it looked like a lying-down elephant. What do you think???

 

 

 

 

 

Locals tell me the water level is down 120 feet from its design depth. With 10 dams above the Elephant Butte Dam…it’s no wonder the once mighty Rio Grande has trouble supplying sufficient water…

 

 

You can read about those dams by clicking this link…
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/mrgbi/Resources/Dams/index.html

 

 

You can read all about Elephant Butte Dam by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Butte_Dam

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW…!!!

https://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/we-dont-melt/

 

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

 Yesterday was partly sunny and 72 degrees. Forecast for today is partly sunny and 73 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2017