If any one of my dogs were writing this review, they would’ve given 5 stars and my smallest(who’s the most talkative) would’ve written: «Hi, I’m Charlie! Go to this lake to swim really far. Don’t forget your mini-tennis balls. They can even float in the water! Leave your big sister at home, she’ll be a showoff. Okay bye, I’m Charlie!» But I’m a people(what my dogs try to tell me when I won’t let them have chocolate chip cookies) and as a people it’s nice, but I’d call it more of a neighborhood park than a lake. It is a nice change of scenery for EP though. It recently had a walking trail added to the perimeter of the lake which is great for walking or running. We haven’t walked our dogs too far on the trail because it’s pretty much the only thing that separates the lake from a road, the lake from the train tracks, and the lake from a ditch. Our dogs are little explorers so we just shuffle them from the car to the tall grasses and water. The lake it self is pretty large for anything like it that I’ve seen in El Paso, but if we were anywhere else someone might call it a large pond. It isn’t that deep, there’s only a few spots where our larger dogs actually have to swim so I don’t know that anyone would come here with the anticipation of swimming, but it is gorgeous to look at and there’s ducks everywhere(even baby ducks!). We usually follow a small trail to what I’m going to call the beach because it’s the only part that gives you easy access to the water. The beach is a little messy. We’ve noticed a lot of glass, but nothing sharp enough to cut. We try to pick it up as we come across it. Our dogs love to run out into the water and roll in the shallower parts. When they come out, they just smell like regular old lake water so nothing strange there. Dusk is the only time the bugs seem to bother, but it’s only gnats. If you live in the area it’s a good place to get a nice walk or jog in with a beautiful scenery(even thought it’s in very close proximity to Doniphan… just don’t look that way). If you’re looking for a more mentally stimulating walk/explore I’d say make a trip to the Rio Bosque Wetlands. Overall though, this is a good spot for a day out with the dogs and they always leave exhausted.
