Balloon Fiesta in October in Albuquerque?

[Kentucky__Jo]

Due to medical issues, we have had to change the dates of our trip to the Grand Canyon. Will Amarillo, Santa Fe, and Grand Canyon be packed during last week of Sept. And first two weeks of October?

[trailertraveler]

If you do stop in Tucumcari check out the murals located around town and the Dinosaur Museum.

[dryfly]

Kentucky _Jo wrote:
Due to medical issues, we have had to change the dates of our trip to the Grand Canyon. Will Amarillo, Santa Fe, and Grand Canyon be packed during last week of Sept. And first two weeks of October?

Regarding your OP, your Santa Fe question has been answered several times over in this thread. The Grand Canyon and Amarillo are many, many miles away from there. I'm positive you will have no trouble in Amarillo, and reservations for the Grand Canyon will have nothing to do with the Balloon event in NM. Also, there is a nice little over night stop over campground in Tucumcari.

[PenMan]

Kentucky _Jo wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
I'm curious, what does your post have to do with the balloon festival?

I was wondering if the areas around the balloon festival will be so crowded that we will have to skip those areas due to too large of crowds since we don't have reservations. Sorry,that didn'make sense. In others wards, should we drive on thru on route 40 and skip all those areas and just head more west.

Keep driving. Everything around Albuquerque will be full. I'm glad we just have to walk out the back door to watch the balloons.

[trailertraveler]

2gypsies wrote:
At least 5 days prior and 5 days after the Balloon Festival the RV parks will be full and their prices will be jacked up.... all the way to Santa Fe. Cochiti Corp of Engineers will also be full but prices as usual. I'd recommend reservations during this time for this whole area.

You could head straight for Grand Canyon and do Santa Fe/Albuquerque on your way back.

The past couple of years it has been difficult to get a site with electric from Santa Fe South. Cochiti Campground has always had some dry camping sites available. Take a look at the Tetilla Peak COE campground. It has 35 electric sites. At this time of year it is first come first serve. It closes October 16. It is an older park located on the East side of Cochiti Lake. The Casino in San Felipe is a bare bones parking lot setup with electric at the sites. Water and a dump station is available. We stayed there when passing through the area mid-week of the balloon fiesta last year and it was about half full.

[imgoin4it]

Yes everything will be full. If you do not have reservations, I doubt you will find anything. Last year the KOA in Las Vegas, NM was all booked up for the year in advance. Never made sense to me because that’s about a 100 miles from the balloon activities.

[2gypsies1]

At least 5 days prior and 5 days after the Balloon Festival the RV parks will be full and their prices will be jacked up.... all the way to Santa Fe. Cochiti Corp of Engineers will also be full but prices as usual. I'd recommend reservations during this time for this whole area.

You could head straight for Grand Canyon and do Santa Fe/Albuquerque on your way back.

[Kentucky__Jo]

azdryheat wrote:
I'm curious, what does your post have to do with the balloon festival?

I was wondering if the areas around the balloon festival will be so crowded that we will have to skip those areas due to too large of crowds since we don't have reservations. Sorry,that didn'make sense. In others wards, should we drive on thru on route 40 and skip all those areas and just head more west.

[kedanie]

Balloon Fiesta starts October 6th. Any campground in the Albuquerque area, including Santa Fe, will be packed. If you don’t already have reservations I would doubt that you will be able to find anything during the 9 days of the Fiesta.

Keith

[NMDriver2]

Yes Balloon festival is in Oct and No GC, Santa Fake, and Amarillo will not be packed in late Sep/early Oct.

[azdryheat]

I'm curious, what does your post have to do with the balloon festival?

[lhenry8113]

You might like to add Williams, Az. to that list-camp there and take train to Grand Canyon on a really fun and unique ride. Lars

https://experiencewilliams.com/lodging-in-williams/#rvparks

https://experiencewilliams.com/grand-canyon-railway/