New Mexico's Navajo Lake was the main destination for this year's end of summer trip.  It is located on the New Mexico-Colorado border (75% in New Mexico) about 1 hour south of Durango, Colorado.  I had paddled there 2 years ago when the lake was about 70 ft below normal level.  This spring the large snowmelt had filled the lake to within 10 ft of normal, so I was going to get to paddle an entirely different lake.  Navajo Lake is called New Mexico's Lake Powell because of the numerous side canyons and creek inlets.  Now that the lake was almost full I was going to have a chance to paddle some of those side canyons that were inaccessible at the lower lake levels.

On Thur. I drove a little over 700 miles to the New Mexico border just past El Paso and slept in the car at the visitor welcome center.  A 3:30 am start the next day allowed me to reach the Colorado state park at the lake's north end about noon on Friday.   The early morning rain cleared in time for me to pitch the tent and get in a couple of hours paddling in before dinner.  A sudden thunderstorm with 60 mph winds just as I started to fix dinner almost ended the trip before it actually began.  However, everything survived and I had great weather the rest of the trip.  I paddled solo the 3 days on the north end of the lake and then was joined by Merlin Emrys for 5 days on the southern end of the lake.  I only did day trips, but there are areas that could have been used for camping out of the kayak.  After leaving Navajo Lake, I stopped for short expoloratory paddles of Conchas and Ute Lakes on my way back home.  Great scenery and good company made for a fantastic trip.