Clayton Lake State Park in northeastern New Mexico lies on the western edge of the Great Plains near the borders of Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. It centers on a one hundred seventy-acre reservoir created in 1955 by damming Seneca Creek as a fishing lake and winter resting area for waterfowl. The park also preserves a notable dinosaur footprint trackway in rock near the lake and reflects an older travel history as a stop on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail. With grasslands, volcanic rocks, sandstone bluffs, fishing, boating, camping, and dark-sky viewing, it combines natural scenery, recreation, and paleontological interest.