Best Tent Camping near Canjilon, NM

Rio Chama RV park in Chama, New Mexico, is at the intersection of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the upper Rio Chama. A nice place to stay May 1 thru mid October. The train passing by twice a day is an exciting event and it's a short walk to the train yard.

Pull through sites have great shade and full hookups with 30 or 50 amp electrical service. Spacious tent sites with full service restrooms nearby. Pet friendly with dog park and free wifi. A great place for fishing, train watching and relaxing.

The Juniper campground is perfection. The layout of the campground allows for both RV and tent camping, while still having you own quiet area. Plenty of water filling stations, and bear boxes. The evening ranger presentations, held at the amphitheater, are informative and interactive.

Not good for large trailers but if you have a smaller one or tent camping, this place is great. When it is full it is still fine as it seems people there are decent and know their manners. (becoming unusual these days) Will stay there again.

Had a great experience here, stayed 3 nights tent camping with my dog. Bathrooms with showers, laundry room, store, and coffee/tea available in the office. The whole property has a friendly/family culture and the couple who manages the campground is very personable and knowledgeable about the area. Will be back!

This was a wonderful spot! We tent camped with our family of 4 for 4 nights. Camp hosts were awesome too! We haven’t ever done a site with no shower so that’s the only reason it didn’t get a 5 star. But! The river made for great bathing :-D

Nearby to tons of hiking spots and great outdoors experiences.

Sites are exposed, and summer is hot. I imagine fall or spring would be more ideal weather. Definitely planning a trip back later in the year. Each tent site is small, relatively flat with picnic table. A few pull through sites are available. Firewood is pre-cut and can be purchased for $1 a log (cash only, drop box).

This place is cool. Its made up of about 15 1960-70's trailers, all updated and stylish, on the wide open Taos Mess. There's also tent camping available for $10 a night. Showers (indoor and outdoor) and bathrooms are all really nice and clean. The owners and employees are all a joy. 15 minutes to downtown Taos. There is a brewery right across the street with live music and an awesome patio.

This place is so cool. There is a “hotel” made up of old airstreams and other RVs, a solid brewery and a music venue that brings pretty serious acts in.

We paid $10 to park our van essentially. Parked in the gravel lot, had acces to showers and bathrooms. There was also tent camping for $10 a night as wel and that looked really legit with unobstructed views .

10/10 will 100% go back to this spot and support what they are doing

Stunning spot, lots of tent sites, room for maybe 12 campers of modest length, mine is 26' spot #9 is prime for a camper with a driver side slide/kitchen table. unknown if it's seasonal but the biting flies, primarily deer flies are beyond bearable, I survived 4 days, most other campers left after one night. The camp host is very friendly, and knows the best fishing holes.

Fenton Lake is usually busy and reserving months ahead of time is a good idea. We like spots number 1 and 17 for tent camping. Rangers patrol the campgrounds and in general people are usually well behaved. Nice hikes along the creek. Getting a fishing spot may be hard to find sometimes as the small lake is usually circled with people fishing. Fishing is usually good though as it is well stocked. Temperatures at night can get down in the low forties after being in the eighties during the day.

Tent camped in July and could not get into the water; but did freeze my ankles off. Have nice latrine commode and that is all. There are no specific sites. Just find a place and set up. Longest stay is 2 weeks. 

Photographer had a pop-up trailer, solar cells, (trees everywhere). He said 2X per week he would get a shower in town somewhere.

There is sufficient room for 10-15 families. Remove all trash when leaving.

Obviously, camp in warm weather or you need to have a snow plow since drifts 3-5 ft deep.

I’ve been coming to Fenton Lake for camping with family since I was little and we’ve always loved it. It’s beautiful and well taken care of. Park rangers are always making their rounds and always friendly and helpful. Plenty of tent sites; only a few have some good privacy. Not many electrical hookups though. Trash bins and vault toilets are usually close by. Love the trail that runs along the side of the camp and the stream that runs adjacent to the campsites. Fishing is fun but get there early because spots fill up quickly. Only downfall I’ve seen is that theres only one water spigot and it’s right at the lake.

Really nice campgrounds right inside entrance to Bandelier National Monument. Self serve/first come, so get here early to snag a spot. We stayed in Bear Loop and found those sites the nicest for vans, car camping, tents.

Pros:

• Relatively quiet for a three loop campground, esp at night
• A good mix of pull through and tent sites with plenty of room to drive in. Our site did not have partial shade, though there are plenty of trees in the loop to help with that
• Frey and other hiking trailheads accessible near camp (lived this)
• Firewood for sale at pay kiosk (cash donation, $1 per log)
• Kiosk was pretty easy/took cards, just be mindful of searching for a spot before you pay
• Nice bathrooms, no showers available at time
• Was really awesome launching point for exploring Bandelier; easy to drive or walk right into the thick of things

Cons:

• $12/night may be too pricey for some, but we found it reasonable

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 tent-camped off of Carson NF Forest Service Road 578 in mid April 2022. FS 578 is south of Tres Piedras about 5 miles on the west side of Hwy 285. There are several dirt road turn offs but FS 578 is clearly marked with a brown NFS sign (see photo) and has no gate but there is a cattle guard/grate. Here is a NFS road use map that shows dispersed camping along FS 578 and many other NFS roads: https://www.fs.fed.us/r3/gis/mvum/Carson/CarsonTresPiedrasCanjilonElRito.pdf (see also screenshot). My Tacoma had no problem on the dirt road, which has ruts and might be tough for an RV. There were few clearings suitable for dispersed camping but I found a nice spot with a small fire circle in a small clearing on the south side of the road just past a fork in the road. I carried two black boulders over to serve as a table and chair. I didn’t see anyone else camping or driving by. The forest is a nice mix of sage, juniper, and pine trees. I saw two elk across a swath of sage. I could see the snow capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range on the eastern horizon when I walked farther up the road. It got cold at night, like 27 F. It was a nice waypoint on my trip between Gunnison CO and El Paso TX but it didn’t look like many people camped there. I had intended to drive to Taos the next day on Hwy 64, but didn’t.

General: 54-site campground in four loops; the Pedernal Loop has water and electric hookups, the Chama and Puerco Loops do not and there is a walk-in tent site loop. There is also overflow camping. 

Site Quality: Sites appeared to be mostly level (at least in the Pedernal loop); most were paved but a few were gravel. Most were back in, but some were pull-through. There are two ADA-accessible sites in the Pedernal Loop. Many have reservoir views. Site 14 has a generous-sized paved driveway. Completing the site is a lantern hook, BBQ, and covered picnic table. Too bad it was so darn windy that we could not enjoy these amenities. There was also a garbage can at the end of each site but no recycling that I saw. If you do not need hookups, sites 34 and 39 (in the Puerco loop) provide excellent water views. 

Bath/Shower House: Basic with two shower stalls, two toilets, and one sink. Very clean. There are also very clean vault toilets located throughout the campground. Did not use the shower so cannot comment on how well it works. 

Activities: The Abiquiu Lake Vista Trail is a 4-mile hike and bike stacked-looped trail (so you can add or duplicate interconnected loops). Boating access is one mile away. Fishing is also popular. There is also a volleyball net and a very nice modern playground. We were there at the end of April, so it was very quiet (which is the way we like it). Shout out to great camp hosts – we were greeted upon arrival and they made sure we didn’t have any questions or concerns. For $16, this is affordable but with the senior pass, $8 is a bonafide bargain!

**Campground Review: **

Imagine 1.25 Ma ago an eruption blew apart the landscape of Northern New Mexico that would rival the shear volume erupted by the world famous Yellowstone hotspot!  Jemez Falls and its namesake campground are the closest, largest, and most developed CG to the Valles Caldera proper and the entrance to the caldera's access roads.  The Jemez Falls CG is more developed than the nearby primitive (dispersed) sites that surround the flanks of the caldera proper, this CG offers 50 single sites and 2 double sites, $10 and $50 respectively.  Most of the sites can accommodate RVs and trailers up to 40' in length with good options for tent camping as well.  Each site has the usual metal fire ring, along with picnic tables and a paved driveway/parking area.  You can reserve sites from mid May through Mid September.

Even if you plan to stay here for a couple weeks (which is the limit) you'll have more than enough to keep you preoccupied!  If you want to drive around and hike or fish in the caldera proper then you will need to go to the Valles Caldera Visitors Center and buy a pass.  They typically cost $25 but when we visited during the International Balloon Fiesta the fee was waived.  If they are charging when you arrive, you can also use your National Parks Pass to get entrance.  Be sure to arrive early on the weekends as they restrict the # of permits they hand out.

Now with all this exposed rock you know there's going to be some amazing climbing!  All of the rock in the immediate area was created by the caldera and related volcanic and magmatic activity in the area in the past few million years.  This gives you the opportunity to climb on some "bulletproof" welded tuff (hardened volcanic ash) much like what exists at the world famous Smith Rock State Park in Oregon.  If you want to find out more about the interesting geology of the area you can look Here

Product Review:

Being a Ranger for the Dyrt allows us to test and review gear from time to time!  This time we got to test out the Men's Free Rein Jacket by Red Ledge.

Pros:

• First thing I want to say about this jacket is that it is super cheap for a rain jacket this rugged and with this many features!  It was only ~90$ after shipping and is comparable to some of my other jackets that were 2-3x as much! 
• I also really liked the mesh fabric on the inner portion of the breast pockets.  It added another dimension of breath ability to the jacket to prevent condensation from building up on the inside.  This was a nice addition to the gusseted armpits flaps to help air out.
• The last thing I really liked about this jacket was the amount of high-vis color options you had to choose from!  I went with the Hi-Vis Orange which is close to a hunters orange and came in very handy as there was active hunting while we were hiking in the Valles Caldera.

Cons:

• There were only a couple of things that we thought could have been improved.  The first was to have the armpit openings be meshed on the inside to prevent it from opening wide up.  We really liked that feature in the breast/side pockets and wished it had been incorporated into the armpits as well.
• The other thing was the inability to zip the jacket from the top or bottom, which would have allowed you to kind of blouse the bottom of the jacket.  

Score: 4/5

• While other jackets have more features, this is a great, durable rain jacket at a price point that is reasonable and affordable for most.  This was a great jacket to test and I anticipate using it for many more rainstorms and windy belays in the future.