Elephant Butte used to be a very large lake for NM. It is now very much smaller and the water is dirty. Lots of run off from farms, ranches and dairies. Wouldn't eat fish caught here. Still a popular recreation area.

I liked it. Beware of parking close to the beach because your vehicle might get stick in the sand

I cannot begin to describe how awful this place is. A friend paid $90 for the designated camp ground right on the beach. We spent the entire evening policing our area to keep people from driving through or setting up camp. There were barriers in place people seemed to just ignore.

All day we watched countless vehicles get stuck and have to pay someone to tow them out. We parked high up on the packed road and hauled our stuff into camp to avoid having to deal with getting our vehicles stuck in the soft sand.

As soon as it started getting dark all the party goers showed up. People were recklessly drunk, stripping down to run around naked, and extremely loud. At 1 am we silk had vehicles driving through our camp except now they were obviously drunk. We watched a very drunk girl who looked under age stagger into the water and fall down several times until we helped her back to her own camp. Another boy, who also looked under age, ran screaming through our camp yelling at an invisible entity to get off him and that someone was trying to kill him.

We finally realized things were still revving up at 2 am with hardcore drugging and partying happening all around us so we packed up and left.

This was not even a holiday weekend and I'm shocked there is not more people who die there just acting crazy. I would not recommend this area to anyone. After my experience there, and hearing some other local stories, I firmly believe they should shut the entire area down at night with a zero alcohol tolerance all times.

I would strongly advise against anyone visiting the Butte. Drive into T our C and tube down the Rio Grande and stay at a spa motel if you are looking to visit the area.

GREAT place for swimming, jet skiing, boating, camping! It's beautiful and a hidden little treasure in the desert! Just be sure to park as far away from the water as you can and try to park where you notice the sand has been recently used! I've seen even 4whell drives get stuck in that crazy sand!