New MexicoReservoirRio Arriba County

Heron Lake

Heron Lake covers about 5,900 acres of the Willow Creek in New Mexico. It lies in Rio Arriba County. Management is in the hands of NM EMNRD State Parks Division.

Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

CountiesRio Arriba County

Coordinates36.6900, -106.6900

Surface area5,900 acres

RiverWillow Creek

Managed byNM EMNRD State Parks Division

Swimming beaches on Heron Lake

No named swimming beach is mapped yet for this lake. Access is through agency day-use areas and boat ramps listed below. We add beach pages only when we can confirm a name, coordinates and an operating agency.

Heron Lake on the map

Lake center, swimming spots and access points.

Get directions

Weather and water temperature

Air temperature and wind from Open-Meteo. Water temperature only when the lake has a public sensor.

Weather data by Open-Meteo

Visiting Heron Lake

The center of the lake is at 36.6900, -106.6900. Water leaves through the Willow Creek. It lies at roughly 7,261 feet of elevation.

Heron Lake has no public water level gauge that we can read, so there is no level chart here. An invented number would be worse than none. Ask the managing agency directly if the level matters for your trip.

Check the operating agency for advisories before any water contact, especially for blue-green algae in late summer. No public sensor reports water temperature at Heron Lake, so the panel shows air temperature and wind. Season dates vary by park; the operating agency publishes them each spring.

The closest lakes in this guide are El Vado Lake (New Mexico, 7 mi), Abiquiu Lake (New Mexico, 34 mi) and Navajo Reservoir (New Mexico, 45 mi). New Mexico has 16 lakes on this site in total.

Public datasets record no beach at Heron Lake, so treat any shoreline access as unmarked and unsupervised. Where there is no marked beach, entry is usually from a boat ramp or an unimproved bank.