Eagle Nest Lake State Park is a state park in New Mexico, United States. The park is located outside Eagle Nest, approximately 30mi east of Taos. It was established on July 3, 2004. Its main attraction is a 2400acre lake which is popular for fishing and boating in the summer, and ice fishing and snowmobiling in the winter. The lake itself is a man-made reservoir created when the Cimarron River was impounded by the Eagle Nest Dam in 1918. The lake is home to several species of fish, including rainbow trout, brown trout, cutthroat trout, kokanee salmon, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, common carp, white sucker, channel catfish, sunfish, and northern pike, which were accidentally introduced into Eagle Nest Lake (the park recommends anglers to keep the pike, because of their threat to the lake's gamefish populations). Eagle Nest Lake is at an elevation of 8300ft, making it an alpine lake, and it is situated in a glacial valley on the slopes of Wheeler Peak, New Mexico's highest mountain. The surrounding mountains are rich in wildlife such as elk, deer, turkeys and bears.
