Best Equestrian Camping near Artesia, NM

The state park boasts several lakes, a mountain bike trail, views, playgrounds in the day use area, and many campsites. There is a RV area at Lea Lake, which is half reserved and half first come. There are tent pads in that area also, showers and flushing toilets are there also. If you are tent camping you are missing out if you stay at lea lake, camp in the primitive areas around the smaller lakes. They are isolated, and have abundant wildlife. Vault toilets are nearby, nasty venomous spiders hide in the vaults but like all unpleasant creatures they dont like the light, so take a flashlight. If you come with pops you should consider footwear for them, the goat heads prevent them from going off road otherwise.

It’s not $5. It’s $14, plus $4 reservation fee…so it’s $18. (can only be reserved/rented online, not in person at site, but can be done same day…I made reservation driving to the site from Roswell).

I took infamous site 24, closest to the lake and the bathrooms. Large pull-through site w plenty of space for a rig much larger than my Prius with a rooftop tent. I’m pretty sure anything you can drive here will fit here.

Bathrooms are a short walk across a small stream feeding off Lea Lake where rabbits and mosquitos roamed free. Men’s room was large but dark until you get about 12 feet inside and motion activate lights. Toilets were…not clean. There was TP. Early am, some crawly bugs (roaches?) came running toward me from different directions and I had to stomp them before they got to my feet/clothes. Gross. There were what looked like shower heads along one wall and floor drains, but I couldn’t tell how to operate them or if that’s what was going on.

Outside bathroom building are shower poles for cleaning off after swimming/beach (beach is also located next to bathrooms), which were operating in mid-September. Felt kind of warm, but prob because it was cold early morning air.

Did I mention mosquitos? They’ve got ‘em. A bunch made it into the tent. Ugh.

Overall? Fine place to stop for a refreshing night or two.

$14+$4 ReserveAmerica Fee  This is a local park for us. We were in Site 19 which is a Handicap site with a concrete pad (RA did not specify that this was a handicap site). Other sites are packed gravel. Site was a "short" site and close to the bathhouse which we did not use. Sites are 50/30/20 with a water hookup. Only a few sites have sewer. Dump station is at the entrance of the campground. The deer flies were not a problem during our visit (they are worse around the salt cedar trees). We were only bit twice and we did not use insect repellant. Since we could not check in until after 4PM, we parked over in the picnic area by the lake. We knew this and had planned it. Dogs are not allowed on the "sand beach" but there are plenty of access points around the campground& picnic area edges of the lake that pets can use. Goat's Head stickers are a problem here, as they are in most of the desert. Our dog wears "shoes" to protect her feet from the stickers and from hot pavement. Wifi was available in the park but we could not connect. We stayed in a Truck Camper 7/4 - 7/5/2023.

We pulled in about 7 pm. It was dark due to shorter days. Easy directions via most nav maps. Three mi. Onto the Bottomless Lakes Rd we were excited to see the sign for the park visitor center, which was closed. It was difficult to tell where to haul my 27ft converted horse trailer now camper... we made a circle. Ended up back at the visitor center only to read a state park sign stating "you are here" I pulled up the reservation & map realizing we hadn't gone far enough. Lea Lake RV campground is 7 mi from the turn onto Bottomless Lake Rd. The Visitor Center and day use it at mi. 3. The camp host Al was extremely nice, directed us to site 17 and the easiest route to get my rig backed in. We managed to the settle in just in time to see the full moon rise over the mountain. Sunrise was just as beautiful. Quite pleased is an understatement! Roswell proper is a short 20 min drive with a beautiful vista overlooking the camp area and lake. Great place to watch the sunset! Clean, warm restrooms with flush toilets. The showers are a bit of work. Press press press to keep it going but it was the perfect temp and definitely appreciated! Drought consciousness in action. Biggest disappointment was the nasty little burrs/ cackle buries/ prickly / spiky little devils I kept pulling out of my poor Vizsla's paws. If you can get your pooch to wear protective booties you're golden. My girl Pearl enjoyed ball as long as it was on the shaded, cement area with picnic table. Definitely a dog friendly campground. At 10 pm I heard Taps being played on a bugle. What a great sound to wind dow a wonder day! Don't know if we'll be able to swim this trip, however, I can see how fun it will be on a return trip in the summer! We'll be back!