Cabello's Reservoir on the Grande, 60+ mi. above Los Cerritos, N.M. March 25, 1979 Betty and I drove up the Rio Grande for a Sunday picnic. Josh the river road (Hwy 83) that follows close to the channel, now completely diked on both sides. River is running high now with snowmelt, but well within its banks. As Los Cerritos color of water is hot chocolate, Betty gradually clearer as you go up toward dam. Water in Cabello's Reservoir is not clear by any means but it would be potable - sort of gray-blue. Along river banks inside dikes are some impenetrable thickets of salt cedar. According to Ray Klett and some of the botanists, a botanist in Biology Dept. These thickets are sterile - little vertebrate life, few insects (other than mosquitoes). Some other areas support healthy stands of giant bunchgrass (Atriplex canescens), especially in the mouths of tributary draws. There were are good habitat for Gambel quail but now most of them are close to houses (mobile homes, etc.) or are gusted. Ray says it is hard to find places to hunt. Cabello's Reservoir is rimmed with a sterile beach of sand and clay, no vegetation around the border. We picnicked on a high point above an active and noisy marina. Motor boats roaring about. Only one fishing boat that I could see. It was drift trolling. See white birds some miles up reservoir that I took to be pelicans. A few shore and gulls about.