Navajo Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in New Mexico, but the water temperature is pretty cold until late August, even after its had a chance to warm up all summer. Despite the cooler water, we usually go camping at Navajo a couple of times a year in our Big Horn 5th wheel and fish off of our Suntracker pontoon boat for bass & catfish. The hook-ups at the Juniper Loop and Cedar Loop RV campground are very nice, and the views of the lake are spectacular!
A couple of years ago late in August the water temperature climbed all the way up to 72 degrees, so we decided to head up to Navajo for a three-day weekend. A few friends had been invited to join us for the first couple of days, which was a good thing, because we needed them to back up this story!
One afternoon we were all sipping some “Ritas” and lounging around enjoying the sunshine and water on our Suntracker pontoon boat. I had “beached” the “toon” by sliding the pontoons up on a little sandy beach way up in La Jara canyon where the water in the canyon was only about 30 yards across.
All of sudden we heard the most awful racket coming from the other side of the canyon. Something was crashing through the trees, branches were snapping, boulders were rolling down the hill, and there was this very loud sound that none of us had ever heard before – and it didn’t sound good. One of our guests said, “what the hell is that!” The noise sounded like a bleating sheep in distress calling for help.
Suddenly we saw what was making all the racket. It was a cow elk and her calf running the down hillside toward the water at top speed with a pack of huge coyotes jumping up on the back of the calf trying to pull it down. When the cow elk made it to the water they both jumped into the lake bellowing the whole time. The cow and calf ended up standing in water that came up to the cow’s belly and just over the top of calf’s back. Then they stopped and turned to face the coyotes. They both just stood there about 20 feet from the shore eyeing the coyotes and daring them to come in after them!
The elk had their feet on the bottom, which gave them traction, but the water was just deep enough that the coyotes would have had to swim to get to the elk. Apparently this is a common defensive practice for elk that are being pursued by coyotes near water. The very intelligent coyotes decided that the elk had gained a distinct advantage by standing belly deep in the lake, and they weren’t about to swim to the cow and calf in an attempt to kill the calf.
Navajo Lake Coyotes
Finally after about 5 minutes of pacing up and down the bank, the coyotes left the two elk standing in the water, and after another 5 minutes the elk climbed out of the water and went on their way.
We were all dumbfounded by the event. After it was over we just stood there and looked at one another in disbelief. It was truly amazing, and something we will most likely only witness once in our lifetime!
Yes, coyotes are very smart predators, but elk are even smarter!
Diana Amador, Corrales, NM