Your favorite campground in N Mexico

frizzen wrote:

trailertraveler wrote:

frizzen wrote:
...Oliver Lee State Park south of Alamogordo is nice...

This is another park that has gotten very popular and may be difficult to get an electric site without a reservation. When we tried to get a spot last October it was full by noon. The only full hookup sites are the camphost sites which they will rent out if they are not occupied. Many of the electric/water sites are irregular in shape and may be a challenge to fit your Motorhome, trailer and jeep into. There are some long dry camping sites that you would likely fit into.

The reservation sites don't have the ramadas over the picnic tables.

I never paid much attention to that. Doesn't mean much if all the first come first serve sites are full by the time you get there and none of the reservation sites are available for even one night. Oliver Lee is far enough from the next nearest campground that if you are there later in the day and it turns out to be full, I would suggest you make some calls rather than continue going from campground to campground.

trailertraveler wrote:

frizzen wrote:
...Oliver Lee State Park south of Alamogordo is nice...

This is another park that has gotten very popular and may be difficult to get an electric site without a reservation. When we tried to get a spot last October it was full by noon. The only full hookup sites are the camphost sites which they will rent out if they are not occupied. Many of the electric/water sites are irregular in shape and may be a challenge to fit your Motorhome, trailer and jeep into. There are some long dry camping sites that you would likely fit into.

The reservation sites don't have the ramadas over the picnic tables.

We enjoyed Rusty's RV Ranch down in the south-west part of the state, on the AZ border. It's a beautiful area and the spaces are HUGE (like 200' long). Every space has its own "yard". They also have a nice big spa.

The only weird thing (besides being in such a remote place) was that they specifically cater to amateur astronomers and they take a pretty firm stand on light pollution. No exterior lights are allowed, but we were able to have a campfire. (Buy some wood from them--very cheap!)

There's a great POI to visit if you stay there. Chiracahua National Park in Arizona. It's about 2.5 hours away, but totally worth the drive. Chiracahua isn't very well known, but the canyon is full of rock spire formations, similar to Bryce Canyon, UT. The hikes through the canyons are incredible.

We got suckered into taking the "shortcut" portal road in February. The folks at Rusty's gave us a hand drawn map and told us it was the shortest way to Chiracahua. Yes, it was shorter, but it still took us 2.5 hours to get there. The drive was a narrow winding fire road and we would have been in big trouble if there had been any oncoming traffic. The dirt road was much too small and twisty for my long bed dually and I had to drive a lot of in 4WD. It was a fun adventure, but I took the long way back to camp after our hikes.

We loved Rusty's and loved Chiracahua, but hated the shortcut.

Ute Lake was a great park, and was very temperate despite being there at the end of July.

frizzen wrote:
...Oliver Lee State Park south of Alamogordo is nice...

This is another park that has gotten very popular and may be difficult to get an electric site without a reservation. When we tried to get a spot last October it was full by noon. The only full hookup sites are the camphost sites which they will rent out if they are not occupied. Many of the electric/water sites are irregular in shape and may be a challenge to fit your Motorhome, trailer and jeep into. There are some long dry camping sites that you would likely fit into.

Oliver Lee State Park south of Alamogordo is nice. Aguirre Springs between Alamogordo and Las Cruces is a no go with that size rig.

Valley of Fires is a nice looking place. Walked through it and did the hike through the lava beds. Three Rivers Petroglyph site has a couple of drive through sloths that could take your rig. It's about half way between Alamogordo and Carizozo. There is also a Three Rivers Campground about 15 miles east of there but not a good option for your rig.

x2 on Brantley Dam.

Our opinion, based on a number of nights in multiple parks, is that the New Mexico state park campgrounds are the best bargain in the nation. $14/night for W/E sites and $18/night for FHU sites, including the daily park pass! Our favorites are Sugarite Canyon near Raton (which may have only one pull-out site long enough for the OP), South Monticello cg at the north end of Elephant Butte Lake SP (with plenty of gravel W/E sites long enough), and Grassy Point cg at El Vado SP between Chama and Abiquiu.

For Federal campgrounds, we also like Cochiti COE cg and the Juniper cg at Bandelier National Monument. Bandelier may not have sites long enough for the OP.

Like others, we have stayed multiple times at Santa Fe Skies and Taos Valley RV parks. But, in Las Cruces, we stay at Sunny Acres, not Hacienda, because we love the older cg with mature trees and lots of shade to a newer one with small trees and SW architecture. But then, we are always in Las Cruces in winter, so having a swimming pool makes no difference to us.

NM is one of our favorite places, so have a great time!

Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions. I did run across the Valley of Fire campground today while doing some research and we are heading that way soon. Many of the others sound promising and we'll be checking them out as we meander our way along.

trailertraveler wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
Cochiti Corp of Engineers has some full hookups and day-trip to Santa Fe.

We have been to Cochiti a number of times. I do not believe that there are any full hookup sites other than the camp host sites at either the Cochiti Lake or Tetilla Peak campgrounds. There are two dump stations at the Cochiti campground and one at Tetilla Peak.. The sites on the outside of the older electric loop (Juniper), do not have water. The water spigots are all on the opposite side of the road. The area has been mentioned so many times on this and other forums that it is becoming very popular and more and more difficult to get an electric site in the Cochiti campground without a reservation.

We have visited 19 New Mexico State Parks and never had a bad experience. Not all have any sites with full hookups and there are a few that do not have any electric sites.

Oops... you're correct. However, Buffalo Grove campground has water/electric and there are dump stations. We always stayed in the dry campgrounds.

Sky Mountain RV Park in Chama is well managed, has large sites.and very clean bathrooms and laundry facilities.