Sumner Lake State Park

A welcome change of pace from the monotonous plains on New Mexico, the 4,500-acre Sumner Lake northwest of Fort Sumner is surrounded by a rocky shoreline and smooth hills. The lake was created by damming the Pecos River and is the center of Sumner Lake State Park.

Nearby attractions

The 19th century history is very much present in the Sumner Lake surrounding areas. Visitors are attracted by the Bosque Redondo Memorial and Fort Sumner State Monument. These grounds were home to the Bosque Redondo reservation, where over 9,000 Navajos and Mescalero Apaches were forced to live in the 1860s and the destination of the formers agonizing “Long Walk” from the Navajo land. Billy the Kid, the famous and often romanticized outlaw and gunman of the 19th century, was shot and killed in Fort Sumner and buried there. Tourists flow to his grave site, now enclosed within a steel cage, due to the fact that the tombstone was stolen and recovered repeatedly.

Activities

Sumner Lake offers many opportunities for recreational activities, such as swimming, hiking and camping. The reservoir is abundant in large mouth bass, crappie, channel catfish and most of all, walleye; fishing is very popular. The lake is open to both powerboats and sailboats and even windsurfers. The area is an excellent place for bird watching; waterfowl migrate for the winter and the canyon below the dam is bird-rich in the summer. Camping sites are open to beautiful lake views, and the junipers, cottonwoods and a few species of cactus offer nature lovers another exotic attraction.

From the tumultuous history of the nearby Fort Sumner to the beautiful surroundings of Sumner Lake, Sumner Lake State Park offers its visitors many opportunities to relax and relive a bit of history.