Carlsbad caverns rv parks

The bats unfortunately were still in Mexico for our visit last month. Another great thing about the KOA is the smoked on site BBQ you can call in to order and they deliver it straight to your campers door!

Another vote for the KOA, went there last year. If you have the time, check out the evening "Bat Flight" at sunset or so, check with the Rangers, very cool

RE: US 285. I'm glad we went through there back in early 2014. I found 285 to be fine then.

285 south out of Carlsbad is a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE. It is no less than 40 miles of constant road construction, potholes, no curb or even 5" of emergency lane, everyone is in a big rig or work truck and there are thousands of them, always stopping and turning, crossing yellow line, trying to pass, ect. There is a stop sign intersection and for some reason the road has been graded down at least 5' so people just crawl though it. This makes the traffic back up and it was at least 3 miles of stopped traffic to get to that stop sign.

Just avoid it or travel it after 8pm or before 5am.

We visited this area last July. We hit the "UFO festival" (stayed at the "Town and Country RV Park" (very nice park) and then at the Carlsbad KOA. Enjoyed our stay there too. Great staff, they serve a very good BBQ dinner. The place is clean and well maintained. If you have the time check out "Sitting Bull Falls" it's about 15 miles or so from the Carlsbad KOA. We ran from Roswell to Carlsbad on Rt 285 and it was just fine. Didn't go south of Carlsbad on 285. We were also told the road and traffic conditions were different on that stretch, so we avoided it. Also, if you have pets there is a kennel service available at the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor center. It is very clean, air conditioned and inexpensive. I would call ahead to make sure it is still in operation, but it was very,very handy for us.

suprz wrote:

1320Fastback wrote:
Was just there and can only recommend the KOA. It is about a 40 minute drive but well worth it after looking at the others. Also avoid the 285 out of Carlsbad at all costs.

Could you tell me what is wrong with 285? Bad road, etc... Because that is the way I was planning to go

There has been a new pipeline going in for the last several years. The heavy truck/equipment traffic is non-stop and has beat the road to death. The asphalt is disintegrated and the road surface extremely rough for most of the stretch from Carlsbad to Pecos. On top of that, add the continued heavy oil field traffic that doesn't necessarily care about speed limits, etc., and it's not a pleasant experience at all. If we didn't have the MOR/ryde independent suspension on the fiver, I don't know how it would have fared.

Rob

1320Fastback wrote:
Was just there and can only recommend the KOA. It is about a 40 minute drive but well worth it after looking at the others. Also avoid the 285 out of Carlsbad at all costs.

Could you tell me what is wrong with 285? Bad road, etc... Because that is the way I was planning to go

Brantley Lake State Park.

Was just there and can only recommend the KOA. It is about a 40 minute drive but well worth it after looking at the others. Also avoid the 285 out of Carlsbad at all costs.

Avoid Whits at all cost, it's a dump.