The main boat ramp area is a great place to scope out the lake, but you will need a scope. Most things are very distant. A trail starts at the south end of the boat ramp parking area that takes you out to the swim beach, a great spot (the best spot on the Cochiti side) for shorebirds and gulls, and a spot that is usually inaccessible by vehicle due to closed roads. You can also usually walk into the campground area to get closer viewpoints of the north arm of the lake, where the Rio Grande empties into Cochiti. There can be great mudflats here where hundreds of gulls congregate, and grebes love the North arm.

Western and Clark's Grebes (year-round but easier in winter), Common Loon (winter), Forster's Tern (spring/summer), large Ring-billed Gull flocks in winter often include other harder-to-find species such as California, Herring, and Lesser Black-backed, Marbled Godwits, American Avocets, and other good shorebirds in migration (hard to find elsewhere in Sandoval County).

The boat ramp parking is free, but other areas have a fee.

Cochiti Recreation Area is located in Sandoval County within the boundaries of the Pueblo de Cochiti Indian Reservation. The lake offers two public recreation areas: Cochiti on the west side of the lake and Tetilla Peak on the east side. Both sides offer spectacular scenic views of the water and surrounding mountains. The Cochiti Dam is one of the ten largest earth-fill dams in the United States, and also one of the largest in the world. The lake derives its name from the Indian Pueblo on the Cochiti Reservation.

The swim beach trail departs from the south end of the boat ramp lot, is not wheelchair accessible, and is sometimes flooded when the lake level is high.