Rockhound State Park, N.M.

Arriving in the morning on a weekday or Sunday is often the best bet to snag a FCFS site anywhere. A good strategy is to stay somewhat nearby the night before to get there early the next day. Like you, I rarely use reservations.

We stayed at Hidden Valley Ranch when in the Deming Area in October and really enjoyed it. It is 7 miles from US-180 on a good gravel road. They are a Passport America park and you can see their rates and conditions here.

Rockhound State is nice and we have been there when it was full. There is Pancho Villa State Park about 25 miles South of Rockhound in Colunbus that will have sites and a nice museum about when Pancho Villa raided the U. S.

Pancho Villa State Park is about 2 or 3 miles North of Las Palomas Mexico.

Nice state park that does have a number of first come first serve sites so timing will be crucial. Plenty of decent RV parks in the Deming area for overnighting near the interstate if things don't work your way. We will call a fully reserved state park about an hour before we get there and usually will get good info from the office about availability of FCFS sites, it would be a good idea for this state park as it is a bit off the highway and would eat up quite a bit of time and effort (including fuel) if there were no sites available. Happy Camping!!!

The problem with a "long drive" is you may be arriving late enough that the first come sites are filled. I've been there a couple of times and never found the electric sites filled, but I've not visited this time of year.

You might also check with near by City of Rocks State Park for sites - they have a mix of electric & non hook up sites.

We stayed there a couple of years ago and thought it was a very nice place. They do have electricity and water hookups. Might get a little windy at night but a pretty sight after dark looking down at the city lights. We paid $14.00 a night with full hookups stayed about two days. you will have to just drive through the campground to see if any sites are open.

Sorry. Should have added, unfortunately , must have electricity .