Best Tent Camping near Chromo, CO

Stayed at site #20 in early June. Elevation around 8400 feet. Beautiful Spring green foliage on the aspens. Clean vault toilets with tp. One potable water station with hand pump. No water & electric hook ups.  There is also trash service in-season. The host, Mike, was very helpful. Firewood for sale at $8/bundle. The campground consists of a handful of sites in an open field, suitable for big rigs, with the remainder of the sites back in the woods which are more suitable to tent, van, car & truck campers. Each site has a metal fire ring and table. Some of the sites in the woods are on a slight slope. Beautiful views of nearby mountains & meadow. Cimarrona Creek runs along side of the campground; fishing doesn't appear to be good in it. Fishing is better south of Williams Creek Reservoir - about 5 miles away. The Cimarrona trail head is behind site #18; this trail leads up into the Weminuche Wilderness area.

I did a fair amount of research online regarding walk-in tent camping at Heron Lake, during the week. See the great maps and detail at https://newmexicostateparks.reserveamerica.com/camping/heron-lake/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NM&parkId=430012 . I called the visitor center to confirm that being a walk-in would not be a problem during the week. Once one arrives as a walk-in, look for the campsites with a green tag on them.

The Heron Lake camp sites shown at the above reserveamerica website all have a fair amount of trees for shade. What the reserveamerica site does not show is a few more Heron Lake campgrounds southwest along Highway 95 (beyond the dam). The southwesterly sites are way more exposed to the sun than the first four campgrounds. Otherwise, the southwesterly campgrounds have fine views of the lake.

I was at Island View campground, in a loop that was convoluted enough that I do not think a trailer (with its inevitable noisy generator) could get in. I guess that this is the point. As a result, all I heard from time to time were muffled voices and no generators. It's the first tent spring-summer-fall camping I have enjoyed in years that was generator-free. I had at least one empty campsite on either side of me as an additional buffer to noise.

I walked along the lakeshore. It did not seem that low. I saw large fish jumping in one cove. I hiked the Salmon Run Trail to the dam. The Salmon Run Trail is a beautiful hike, not all level but not too steep for this older person's knees and walking poles. On the lake side of the dam, walking along the highway to get a good look at the dam, I saw several schools of large fish.

The vault bathrooms and the flush-toilet bathrooms were fine. Not super clean and not super dirty. I did not try the shower but it looked like people were using it.

This time of year, bring some bug repellent or wear jeans and a light long sleeve shirt at night. New Mexico has had a lot of moisture this season, so I think the bug-giness is higher than usual. Still, I sat outside and read for an hour or so pretty comfortably.

The camp host was lovely.

I was here on a Thursday and there were 2 other sites taken by the end of the night. This is off a backroad (dirt) that is somewhat well traveled.  So the campground is petty accessible by any vehicle. But the campground is tucked between the river and the road. There was 0 traffic all night, but a few cars by the morning. There is 1 vault toilet and all sites have a picnic table and fire ring. There is parking for 2 cars at each site, but more space to park close by.  No tent pads but the ground is clear for easy tent placement. It is very quiet at night other than the gurgling river. It is thickly wooded and plenty of shade. This is in a small valley that runs East/West, but the sun doesn't pop over the mountains until late and it sets early. This is a free first-come/first-serve campground.

We stayed at the primitive sites and showed up with no reservations but there were several open sites, which allowed us to find one with privacy. The views from the site to the lake were breath taking!

Our site had a fire ring and a pic mic table, the surface was pretty rough and rocky so make sure you have very good padding, the bathrooms with no shower were within walking distance and there was a water spout. The sites are close to each other so if you have neighbors don’t expect that much privacy. We would come back to this park to enjoy the views and water activities.