Third-day road log: Las Vegas water treatment plan, Storrie Project, and Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge
— Joseph Zebrowski, Jennifer Lindline, and Michael Petronis

The third-day trip tours the raw water conveyance system of the high desert City of Las Vegas and other area water users. The trip travels west through Las Vegas, crosses the Gallinas River, parallels the Creston ridge, then enters the City of Las Vegas Water Treatment Facility (Stop 1). The stop provides an overlook of Bradner Reservoir, one of three reservoirs for Las Vegas, and introduces the geol¬ogy of the region as it pertains to the water conveyance system. The trip proceeds east past the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, crosses the Gallinas River, and stops at the Storrie Project diversion (Stop 2), a nearly 100-year old structure that diverts water from the Gallinas River to Storrie Lake where it is stored for agricultural and municipal uses. Stop 3 overlooks Storrie Lake, where water in storage is owned and man¬aged by the Storrie Project Water Users Association. The water is used by area agricultural users and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The City also leases storage in Storrie Lake to supplement its reservoirs and groundwater resources. The route then travels south on NM-518 along the transition between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (west) and southern High Plains (east). The trip crosses Pecos Arroyo and ascends onto the Las Vegas Plateau to the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge (Stop 4)—the largest shareholder in the local water association. The refuge includes more than ten playa lakes that welcome migrating birds traveling the Central Flyway. Stop 5 takes participants to the Gallinas Nature Trail and offers walks among grasslands, marshes, and timbered canyons as well as panoramas of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Great Plains.