We went in 2011 and then again last year. There was a bit if bad weather in 2011 and many of the events were canceled but it was still worth attending. That time we stayed at
Stagecoach Stop RV @ $80/night and took the shuttle buses from about five miles south of the RV park to the Fiesta grounds. Though this was acceptable and required some very early rising (about 4:30 a.m.) it was nowhere near ideal.
Last year we had reservations at Cochiti COE about a 45 minutes away from the Fiesta grounds. This again would have been acceptable but not ideal but we didn't have reservations for any of the RV spots near the Fiesta field. When the government shut down, we were originally told we wouldn't be able to use our Cochiti reservations so we decided to go to the first come/first serve RV spots on the fiesta grounds but not immediately adjacent to the launch field. We went in a day early and easily registered and found a spot overlooking one of the places where many of the balloons land. It was dry camping but was a wonderful experience. There was a constantly running shuttle for the five minute ride to the balloon field. These RV spots are called "Standard RV Parking" in the Fiesta's literature.
You can see our blog entry for the 2011 visit
here. Last year's blog entry is located
here.
