Camping near Abiquiu Lake

This park is very nice and well maintained, with distant mountain views on 3 sides of it. It is in the middle of town, which makes it convenient but also comes with the drawbacks of being in town. I like how their sites are arranged so that you are not looking and eating with your neighbors sewer. I guess technically, they are "buddy sites," but they have cleverly added angled dividers to maintain your privacy if you dont know your neighbors 😉. Our site row backed up to an eleme tary school, so if you are there during the week and don't want to listen to children enjoying their recess, you should request another site. They do have a small dog trail and walking path at the back of the park, which is nice, but a lot of people need to learn what "clean up after your pet" means.

Nothing wrong with this campground, per se... 
The sites are large, and shadier than we'd have thought (we brought a patio umbrella all the way from Chicago and discovered our site was under a large pinion pine, go figure). 
The pit toilets and the plumbed facilities are clean and maintained. 
Open fires are not allowed. 
But, we rarely saw anyone. One couple walking their dog and the camp host who we didn't meet until we were leaving. We joked that all the RV's were "Breaking Bad" meth labs, this being New Mexico. The sense of desolation is enhanced by the wind, the cawing of birds and occasional howls of coyotes or wolves (?). It was downright spooky.
Heron lake is currently at 25% capacity. Which means the boat ramp and marina are perhaps a mile from the current shoreline, dried up and one of the saddest sights you'll see. 
However, it was a good base of operations for our trips to Chama to spend the day on the scenic railroad, as well as day trip into Taos.

I often camp by Diablo Canyon, which has wonderful sunsets and decent off trail hiking.  There's even a cave for those who know where to find it. 

I've also camped down by the river for the access to water for splashing about and cooking, but the area is popular with Mexican families and sometimes attracts a party crowd.

There are plenty of more remote spots off the main gravel road that would be even quieter.  The terrain is juniper and oak, with cottonwoods by the river. 

Temperatures run hot in the summer and freezing in winter, although it is the best choice for winter camping near Santa Fe.   Summers the wife and I most often drive up Artist Road and camp at Big Tesuque or the skiiiway at the top, but we did choose Buckman this summer when thunderstorms pounded the mountains. 

It does take time to drive the gravel road, and there's not much for ordinary folks around Las Campanas, the wealthy housing division between the camping and town.  You might get to Airport Road and Cerrillos under an hour, but getting to the Plaza will take longer. 

Cell service is spotty.

This is such a mixed review. We stayed here the weekend of July 26. We arrived Friday night and found a beautiful campsite on the right side of the entrance with a beautiful view of the canyon below. Watching the sunset over the ridge is breathtaking. We enjoyed our time until Saturday evening right about 8:30 where we were watching the sunset from the ridge. We heard one gunshot, followed by 6 gunshots and the sound of bullets whizzing past us. We immediately ducked behind the car. We had not heard any gunshots the whole day and did not see any hunting areas nearby. Where the sound of the bullets and gunshots were from it felt like someone was shooting directly at our campsite from beside us or in the canyon. We made it to the car and got out to the Hw 4 to flag someone down given that we had no cell service. A man stopped and told us that unfortunately that’s pretty common in the area and it was probably just some drunk assholes and it was not malicious. We were so shaken we could not stay there that night and packed up as quickly as we could. I enjoyed the beauty of this area but would not stay here again after this experience.