Best RV Parks & Resorts near Capulin, NM

They are a first come first serve RV site, which luckily when we showed up there was only 1 other RV parked. We picked a secluded back corner spot which was 1 of 2 full hookup sites (electric & water, no sewer). The dump station was unavailable due to a broken drain, and there were only porta-potty style bathrooms on the campground. The showers were down the road a bit, amd were your typical state park showers - hot water, no amenities which is totally fine. There are bear boxes on each site which was good to have in that area! We hiked the old coal mining camp on the side of the canyon and the woods behind our site which was a lot of fun!

This State Park has a great camping area. It has places from tents to full hook ups. The restrooms were clean and had showers, but you had to pay for time with quarters, and there's a change machine so you can get quarters.

The amenities listed above can be misleading. There are 62 sites in Carpios Ridge and 7, yes..7 are full hook-ups!! I don't recall how clear that is on their reservation site. But, I thought I had reserved full hookup site until I got here and discovered not so much. Most sites are electric hookup only. And, this is the first State Park I have been to with coin operated showers. Cost 1.75 for 7 minutes. Also, take note, while there is fishing and boating. There is no swimming (Again, I should have looked closer and paid more attention). Of note to some, you may want to be aware they only allow 3.2 beer. And, at this writing their is a burn ban in effect. No wood or charcoal fires and no smoking outside your vehicle. Also, no 420 "public consumption"...whatever that might be.😊 However, the views from the overlook are wonderful. I would not recommend this gc if you are looking for seclusion and quietness. Camp setup is what I call "condo camping" neighbors are pretty much right next to each other.

Capulin RV Park is a pretty nice private RV park across the highway from the Capulin Volcano National Monument entrance road. We stayed one night. Some of the sites are shady. The park streets and sites are crushed limestone. The park was clean and quiet. The sites are very close together; fortunately, it was not full and we had room. Restrooms and showers were clean (did not use shower). Amenities include: common fire ring with seating and view of volcano, swing with view of volcano.

Stayed in pull-thru campsite #25 which had evening shade and level. It was a crushed limestone site. There was barely enough parking for my 34 ft TT. Neighbors are VERY close. Utilities: 20/30/50A electric in middle of site. Water in middle of site, good pressure. Sewer in middle of site with 4-in screw-on fitting.

AT&T had two bars of LTE service. AT&T Speedtest: 36.6 Mbps down, 7.5 Mbps up. Free WiFi is available, but did not use it.

The town of Capulin, NM is very small. The closest restaurant is The Sierra Grande Restaurant in Des Moines, NM, which is open year round for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other restaurants and fast food are available in Raton and Clayton.

Would stay here again.

Nice campground amongst pinons and juniper trees. Not your typical rows of spaces. Sites are spread out along several wandering loops.

Different size spaces and tent sites! No walk ups, must reserve online.

WalMart just south of Trinidad CO; which is full of interesting history.

Fire pits and firewood available.

Full hook ups at $41 and nine dollar park fee daily.

Lots of shore birds at the lake. Lake wasn’t visible from our site but nearby. 

This is an amazing RV Park! The spaces are huge! We are on an end and I think ours is about a quarter acre in size! Really!There are lots of trees around and natural grass growing. There aren’t any shooting competitions going on at the time, so we don’t hear much shooting. There are only about 8 RVs in this 49 space RV area, but I imagine when they have an event going on, the RV Park is much fuller and you would probably hear more gun fire. The views are beautiful!

There is a free museum and a small laundry - 2 washers, 2 dryers.

We are strong believers in our Second Amendment and appreciate the NRA providing this center to teach people the proper handling and use of guns.

It’s places like this that make me realize this how possible Van Life is!

I rolled in at 9pm when I had reservation issues else where, after finding this online at 830pm. There are full bars and open spaces. I felt bad rolling in to the lot because there were other people set up and tucked in. A few were blasting music and chatting loudly, but everyone was quiet from 10pm to 8am. I car camp, but the people staying were full timer van life or family’s camping out for the weekend. With spring coming in, the birds were a great natural alarm. Sure the lake was empty, but it’s free, easy to find, and free. The pit toilets were clean, and there were a few picnic tables at a few spots and lots of trash cans to keep it clean. Plus, the Milky Way was to die for.

I pulled into a tall grassy area so I felt kind of guilty in the morning when I saw they cut the grass in recommended dispersed spots. It wasn’t an issue though, set up anywhere as long as you’re not being a jerk.

It’s very accessible, good views, 30 mins from capulin volcano and sugarite state park.

Camped here for 3 nights. it was a great spot to be to check some other areas before moving further north. Some things to be aware of; Mostly electric only sites. I think they have 6-7 full hookups. Sites are reserved well in advance. Best sites 48-51, they overlook the lake. Only 3.2 beer allowed in the park and no public 420 consumption. Also, showers are coin operated. But, they do have a laundry! Overall, a very comfortable stay. I would recommend this place.

Easy check in, they take credit cards, full hookups, on a hill and dirt sites but off the main road so not too much noise, views and sunsets are great!

We stayed at Soda Pocket in mid-May 2022.  Actually we had reserved site 06 in the Lake Alice campground, because it was full hookups, but upon arriving at Lake Alice we confirmed what another reviewer had said - it's a tightly packed campground, very close to a busy road and not close to the lake itself.  On top of that, there was a boil water notice for the water hookups, and to top it off, the utility hookups for Site 06 are on the *Wrong* (i.e. the passenger) side of the rig, given the orientation of the driveway for backing in.  Put all that together and we decided to forego our reserved site and see if we could do better up at Soda Pocket on top of the mountain.  The campground host at Lake Alice warned us that the road up to Soda Pocket was treacherous and without guardrails, but we disregarded this warning and took our chances...

Man are we glad that we did that!  The view from Site 23 was incredible of the canyon below.  And we arrived just as a thunderstorm was passing to our east, and witnessed an incredible double rainbow over the canyon.  The pics don't even do it justice.  There's great hiking and viewpoints from Soda Pocket, and the so-called "treacherous" road up to the campground is gravelly and a bit steep in a few places, but very passable (there was a Class A rig up there, and a number of 30+ ft 5th Wheelers as well).  The sites were well spaced, and Site 23 was fairly level and wide, easy to back in.  It looked like Site 18 is a nearby pull-through site that still offered nice views even though it's situated more in the middle of the campground circle.  

Overall this state park was extremely cool, kind of off the beaten path, and well worth the visit!  Check out Soda Pocket, it's worth the drive up the mountain!

We've lived in New Mexico (Alamogordo and Albuquerque) for 30+ years, but had never made it up north to Sugarite Canyon State Park. But on our RV trip back home from Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided to spend a night here rather in the small town of Raton(eight miles away). It's a lovely park, with some steep walls, small lakes and an interesting history. We took a few of the smaller hikes(time was limited) and the one of the Coal Camp was very interesting.

Our 29ft RV barely fit in our site, and there were some tricky branches and overhanging trees to work around. The site was fairly narrow, but I will say we were spread out nicely between the sites. We were at a site with electric(30 amp only) and water(water pressure very low, due to a lower aquafer). The dump station was nearby, but no water available by it for flushing out the tank.

Camp hosts were super friendly. It was a very easy going place. Most of the sites are pretty small, and our"small" Class A was the biggest rig there, except for the hosts' 40' RV. So if you've got a bigger rig, you might have trouble finding a site to accommodate. But for smaller RVs, I think this is a great place to stay. VERY dark and quiet at night!! A lovely and reasonably priced spot that I can easily see spending a long weekend at.

(OH, there is NO wifi and no cell signal. Be prepared to be off-grid completely! You're at least 5 miles from a signal.)

We stayed three nights in Site# 33 with our 17 foot Casita travel trailer. Level back-in sites close together. Many of the sites have tight back-in access from a narrow roadway. A 35 ft trailer gave up trying to back into a site near ours. If you have a larger rig, check the map carefully before reserving. There are some larger, easier access sites.

Electricity but no water at sites. Water faucets distributed throughout campground. Clean restrooms with coin operated showers.

Camped in a small RV in site 13 which had a fairly level gravel pad. There was a tent site, but it looked to have been washed away. This site had great views of the mountain and lake. Enjoyed the short hike on Levsa - a one mile loop with up high views of Lake Trinidad. The Carpios trail was steep and rocky. Didn't have time for the 3 other trails. Showers and Laundry nice. Saw some deer and a wild hare. Somewhat nearby is Capulin Volcano National Monument. Highly recommended.

New mexico state parks nearly all online reservations now. Funny I had no printed copy and nobody checked me. Pretty area in the middle of open prairie. Well spaced non electric sites but it can be a long walk to toilets.

This State Park is beautiful, with hiking/fishing/historic walks galore. We arrived late on Friday, June 23 after a 10 hour drive from Arkansas. We were in Site #23 in the Soda Pocket Campground.  Every site had a covered picnic table and was relatively level.

Sites 20-23 have spectacular views of the canyon, but you trade that for some serious wind and neighbors as there is no natural shade.  Sites 1, 3, 14 and 16 have shade and a little more distance.  Bathrooms were in great shape, and there is a free shower near the park entrance which had good water pressure and was very clean.

The visitor center is small but with a lot of good exhibits, and adjacent to the hiking trails of the abandoned coal camp and mine.  The coal camp trails have lots of informative stands explaining what everything was, how the people lived, etc.  The two lakes (Lake Alice is more like a pond) have nice walking paths. There is another lake just across the Colorado border and you can drive to the parking area just a mile or so away.

There are numerous nature hikes, and I did the short (.5) miles Vista Grande Nature Trail which has a beautiful bench for a sunrise view.  Uphill some but not too strenuous and with lots of information.

A really beautiful hike is the Little Horse Mesa Trail which takes you to the top of the mesa you can see to the north of Soda Pocket Campground.  It meanders a bit but at some point the trail builder said "I've given you all the switchbacks I can, you'll just have to go straight up" and the last 50 yards are pretty much straight uphill.  When you get to the top though it's like another world.  It's a pasture like setting with trees, and beautiful views from a trail that follows the cliffs. You'll have to make your own way over to the Lake Maloya overlook but it's well worth it.  Highly recommend this.

The camp hosts and visitor center people were great, and the ranger came by one night and showed a group of kids a mountain lion pelt and a bear pelt. There was a report of bears on the road up to Soda Pocket Campground but we did not see any.  The road was a typical dirt road, and not in bad shape at all.

I'm not a fisherman, but could easily spend two full days here hiking alone, much less fishing or kayaking Lake Maloya.

Clayton Lake State Park near Clayton, New Mexico turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It is a small state park with several small camogrounds spread around the reservoir which is popular for fishing. Our campground had about a half dozen sites overlooking the lake. The opportunity to see dinasaur tracks and attend star parties make this park unique. The campground host is an amateur astronomer who regularly hosts very well-attendedstar parties. Water and electric were available at our campsite, but the park does not have a dump station.