Bitter Lake NWR offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities. The refuge is open year round during daylight hours (dawn to dusk). No entrance fee is required. Headquarters office hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Restroom facilities are available at the headquarters office as well at the visitor center during open hours and are also available on the wildlife drive.

Visitors to Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge are treated to beautiful displays in nature.  Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge has gained widespread fame for supporting one of the most diverse populations of dragonflies and damselflies in North America. Here is some of the best habitat in eastern New Mexico for; native fish including the federally listed Pecos bluntnose shiner, rare migratory birds such as the yellow billed cuckoo, unique amphibians such as the Spiney Soft Shelled Turtle, and diverse native riparian plant communities.

Attracted to the area by its abundant water supply at least 357 species of birds have been observed on the refuge. At least 59 species of mammals, over 50 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 24 fish species have been documented on the refuge.

Refuge wetlands provide habitat for thousands of migrating lesser sandhill cranes, Ross and snow geese and about twenty duck species such as pintails, mallards, canvasback, gadwall, shovelers and three species of teal.

With its gypsum karst topography and unusually diverse wetlands a variety of plant and animal communties thrive on the refuge. Native grasslands, vegetated sand dunes, brushy bottomlands, and red-rimmed plateaus provide a sharp contrast to the marshlands of the refuge.

Straddling the Pecos River the Refuge consists of an assortment of water habitats. Numerous seeps and free-flowing springs, oxbow lakes, marshes and shallow water impoundments, water-filled sinkholes, and the refuge namesake, Bitter lake, make up these unique environments.

Scattered across the land are over 70 natural sinkholes of different shapes and sizes. Created by groundwater erosion these water habitats form isolated communties of fish, invertebrate, amphibians and other wildlife.

Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located about nine miles northeast of Roswell, New Mexico. From Roswell, take U.S. 380 (Second Street) east about three miles to a refuge sign at Red Bridge Road. Or take U.S. 285 (Main Street) north to Pine Lodge Road. From the turnoff, it is about seven miles to refuge headquarters, following directional signs.