Caballo Lake a rest stop during their travels, and eagles are often seen in the area. Caballo Lake is named for the Caballo Mountains that border the lake to the northeast, east, and southeast, in which wild horses roamed; Caballo means "horse" in Spanish. The upper area of the lake is very shallow and in recent years has been blocked from the lower, deeper end of the lake. The water has a slightly brownish hue from a distance, due to the shallow waters (usually about at the deepest point). The beaches of Caballo are rocky when compared to Elephant Butte Reservoir, but
Caballo Mountains another unconformity. Above that is the Love Ranch Formation of conglomerate, mudstone and sandstone, which was deposited in the Paleocene to early Eocene. During the Eocene, a wave of arc volcanism was felt across southern New Mexico. In the Caballo Mountains, this can be seen in the Palm Park Formation, a thick layer of andesitic or tuffaceous mudstones, sandstones, and breccia. Next is the Bell Top Formation, which consists of rhyolite, basalt flows, and tuffaceous sandstones. In the southern part of the Caballo Mountains, there are remnants of a region wide sheet of flood basalts and andesite, which was laid