Icy Bosque del Apache

New Mexico has experienced very cold, record breaking weather this past week. Went to Bosque yesterday and it was a very different place than any other time I've been there and I've been there plenty. For those planning to visit in the near future, temperatures well below zero have frozen all the pipes at the visitor center, no water, no restrooms except the porta potties. There is also a natural gas emergency in the state with many counties having no gas for heating (just in case you might be staying in a hotel). Not many ducks at Bosque either because very little open water so few raptors too. Cranes still there but very nervous with no water, just ice for protection. Temps starting to return to normal but expect things to be different there for at least a short while.

Sally, conditions down there sound pretty bad!

Thanks for the update Sally. I was actually thinking about coming out around the 11th of the month. If you don't mind, I might email you a couple days before to see if you have any update. If it is like this, I will most likely change my mind and not go. It also depends on what kind of weather I might get to travel in.

Sad conditions for all critters, including us, and in much of thre nation.
Sure am envious that you're so close to Bosque!
Sandy

I was supposed to be there this weekend. Flight cancelled out of Houston because of the weather, but we had already learned from the park rangers that getting there would be difficult at best, and likely we wouldn't make it at all. It was my first planned trip there and I am pretty disappointed.

I was there between Christmas and New Year's. It was 9 degrees out when I finally left Albuquerque. I vowed never to leave San Diego in the Winter again unless it was to go to a place with palm trees and Mojitoes.

Conditions at Bosque del Apache don't look like they'll be improving in the near future. This coming week, night time temps are supposed to be in the mid- to low-teens there so ice won't even begin melting. The following week temps should start rising, but it will take quite some time for the ice to melt off ponds which are now frozen solid. I also visit Bosque frequently, and I can say that open water at Bosque is essential for a positive photographic experience - no open water, no birds.

Sorry to be a downer, but weather here in NM has been abominable - it was -20 degrees at my house in Edgewood last Wednesday morning - and improvement is slow in coming. Can't wait for spring.....