Best Tent Camping near Cedar Crest, NM

CAMPGROUND REVIEW: Turquoise Trail Campground, Cedar Crest, NM

Turquoise Trail Campground is a small privately owned campground located five miles north of I-40 off Route 14 (exit 175) just outside the east side of Albuquerque. Tucked along the base of the Sandia mountains, at 6940’ elevation. http://www.turquoisetrailcampground.com/

There is plenty of visible signage to guide you down Snowline Dr into the campground.

As you approach the office/museum on the right, the RV/Camper loop is visible on the left (which appeared full). Behind the office building are two tent loops (upper and lower). There are two very clean bathroom/showerhouses located between the office and tent loops. A laundry room and dishwashing sink is located at the back of the office building. *This is also the only water access for the tent loops.

RV sites have full hookups. Tent sites have only a leveled, gravel tent pad, picnic table and standing grill. Only stove fires were permitted at our visit due to open fire restrictions.

Tent sites are separated by scrub brush, which offered partial privacy between most sites, but you will hear your neighbors. The outer tent sites back up to a residential area, with a fence separating. Bring earplugs for undisturbed sleeping, as road noise from Route 14 can be heard, along with local dogs randomly in the distance.

At $20 a night, the campground is convenient and sufficiently met our needs as we traveled west on a tight itinerary.

Shower tokens are provided with your nightly fee. Each token gives you 7 minutes of shower time.

There is plenty to do nearby, with bike trails and hiking trails…though nothing of particular interest in the campground itself.

The bustling city of Albuquerque is the next exit west, so you are still very close to shopping, eateries, and nightlife.

Nice tall shade trees at all sites. Clean facilities (vault toilets). Some tent sites have brick wind structures around their picnic tables, which can be a handy especially with NM spring winds.

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.

Airbnb for tent camping, overnight parking for van camping, full access to home amenities - this was exactly what we needed for a one night stop. The hosts were quick to respond, communicative, warm and accommodating; the site is peaceful and has a genuinely good energy. I love the whole setup and would definitely stay there again.

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).

Stopped by this KOA to see what it offered for possible future stays. It's a compact campground that provides pull through sites as well as back-in and tent sites. They offer everything from 50 amp electric to cable TV. Sites are clean and neat. There's a dog park for your pets. Bathrooms are clean with hot showers. They have cabins available as well.

Great location for exploring Sandra Fe, Bandelier, and other national monuments.

This is a civilized campground located just a few minutes north of Albuquerque. Amenities include a camp store and laundry room. I arrived without a reservation and was able to find a nice tent site with plenty of shade and wooden fences on three sides for privacy. Water and electricity were also available at my site.

This being an urban campground, there was some traffic noise from nearby roads and freeways. However, the campground quieted down at night and I slept well. The bathrooms were very well appointed, and required a code to enter.

There are vault toilets, trash bins, and bear boxes. This campground is nice with sites for RV and tent camping. We camped here one night with our scout troop. I did have spotty T-Mobile service, others had phone service as well but I’m not sure of their provider. We had a great night with a campfire and a good view of the stars and moon. All was well until someone started illegally cutting down trees at 2 in the morning. After an annoying couple of hours they were gone, most of our group were wide awake and tried to go back to sleep. We stayed at the site till afternoon with no other problems, just a group of tired scouts.

We were very excited on our first night to settle into our campsite after a long day of adventuring. Just a short drive to the outskirts of Santa Fe in mountain country we found our campground, Rancheros de Santa Fe.

Upon entry the staff was very friendly and welcoming and we felt like this would be a great place to call home away from home.

The campsites were laid out well with room between campers and because it was the end of a weekend, they were not entirely at capacity which made for a pleasant sense of space in the great outdoors.

Our campsite was positioned in the "high road" tent site area which is a primitive campsite without additional amenities. Each campsite has a fire ring and also a picnic table for campers to utilize and a pad site for tents slightly raises from ground level.

It made for a beautiful night sleep under the chilly New Mexico skies.

By morning we ventured up to the public showers and restrooms which were clean and had amazon water pressure and hot water to set the morning in motion perfectly.

The facility also offers a pool and theater room during summer months so while we didn't get to take advantage we were excited to know upon return we would have these features available.

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Overall we give this campground a 4 of 5 Bunniea! The only things we noticed which kept it from a 5 were the lack of wifi reach in the back sections of the campground, wouldn't have been a big deal but cell service in the off grid location was also patchy so the wifi would have been handy. And the pad site was not designed for a tent quite our size. Our tent is a 12x8 and had a little side hang on on the 12 foot end.

We checked out this campground as an option when traveling to the Tent Rocks and it was a great place. The campground was clean and sites were not to close together. We noticed a good mix of both tent and rv campers on the property.

For tent camping with no hook ups it was only $12 which fit the perfect price point. These sites included a pad for the tent as well as fire rings and awnings with tables.

The view of the sunset here was impressive to say the least and I was so in awe of the colors in the sky I forgot to take a picture, that doesn’t happen often!

Bathrooms were just the right size for the amount of people who were coming and going and best of all, hot showers!! That in itself is nice to find when you are traveling in the southwest sometimes.

We were only about 15 miles from the Tent Rocks on very nice roads so it was perfect!!

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