Percha Dam State Park Campground

The current (8/23) camp host screamed obscenities at me and told me to leave the park "for BLM land" because I asked the neighboring campsite (where he was partying) to please tone it down after 10 pm, during quiet hours. Yep, he's still here, park mgmt like volunteers with his attitude so you won't criticize anything. Rangers don't care, if not worse- I've had property destroyed in addition to hostility from this host. Rangers drive around in pickups with blacked-out windows like wannabe feds, and don't stop if you try to wave them down. The host attempts to look macho riding around on a lawnmower every day- it's about all he does- but he doesn't use the restrooms so he doesn't care what condition they're in, if showers don't work, lights are burnt out, toilet paper dispensers are empty, etc. He'll tell you that he's only an unpaid volunteer and it's not his job. Paid maintenance "clean" restrooms/outhouses with a filthy bucket of slop and a toilet brush that they use on every toilet seat- it's just as well they drive away and don't "clean" at all if you are in the outhouse (I've been here 5 days and the women's side has not been cleaned once.) You can see their priorities when they spend days with weed wackers somewhere, but nobody ever trims the junipers that are growing over the crumbling sidewalks to the outhouse, or around the water spigots in the same area. This demonstrates the difference between looking busy/macho and actually caring about the public. "You don't matter and we don't care" is the motto here, especially if you ask for anything unreasonable, like observing quiet hours or refilling toilet paper. Goathead thorns are everywhere, watch your dog's paws. The raccoons are amusing if they're not getting into your stuff. The river, when it exists is brown and gross, but locals and Texans come out in large noisy crowds weekends to swim and fish in this junk. Ironically, I bet they're the same ones who deride the goals of the CWA… The positive is weekday birding, if you can deal with some truly stupid and hateful people. Just this summer I've seen 1 painted bunting, summer tanagers, Bullocks orioles, sandhill cranes- even a couple of vermillion flycatchers that live near the host's site, which I bet he's never noticed. In the fall there's no hunting in this park, so it's a refuge for many types of ducks, and a small herd of deer sleep in the grassy sites along the river. In spite of being close to the highway and seasonal agricultural activities, this could be a nice park if anyone cared, but that won't happen because it's rural southern NM. A weird mix of apathy and hostility is the prevailing attitude here.