Best Equestrian Camping near Costilla, NM

My wife and I have stayed at Hopewell Lake twice now. The first time we stayed here, we stumbled upon this little gem of a site while driving from Durango, CO to Taos, NM. It was enchanting enough that we made sure to make it back for an opportunity to take in the scenery and relax during a long weekend. The only issue we ran into was an abundance of mosquitos, but this should be expected during the late Spring/early Summer in northern New Mexico and can be easily addressed with a citronella candle and a bit of bug spray. Our most recent stay was on one of those rare nights where you can pull off the rain fly and not worry about a midnight downpour, which left us with a wonderful view of the stars, and the sites are private enough that, as long as you don't set up next to the table, it's comfortable with an open tent and away from prying eyes.

The campground is nice, very well maintained, and the site host is friendly and helpful. The grounds are a

The website listed for this campground is correct Ponderosa campground Antonito, CO.

Phone 719.376.5857

This is a very relaxing place to stay and it seems like most of the people there have been there many times before. The drive in is easy on Route 17 and does not require a vehicle with high ground clearance. They do allow campfires, they have clean bathrooms and a shower house. I stayed in a backpacking tent after driving all day arriving on a Friday at about 4:00 PM. The campground is set-up for small campers and has some cabins for rent too. The bathrooms with showers are clean and comfortable. The sites have fire rings with grates and picnic tables. The owner manager is great, providing quality fishing advice, conversation and even a free cup of coffee in the morning. Hiking on the CDT is near the campground and fishing is right in the campground. The steam train is right up the pass and I happened to be there the night before opening day catching a photo when I drove over the pass to Chama New Mexico. The Cumbres and Toltec Train traveling between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. This is a very nice drive and Chama is a cool place to visit, it is a trail town on the CDT.

I will visit this campground again for sure.

This is the first campground I’ve found in New Mexico where I felt like I was camping in Colorado, it was so green and beautiful! The camp sites were nicely spaced, so we felt like we were primitive camping, but it was nice to have a picnic table, especially because we have a small child. Family friendly. We wish we would have brought our 4x4 vehicle because we had initially planned to camp at little blue lake, but my Subaru Impreza was not powerful enough/didn’t have high enough clearance to make it up the road that lead to the lake! We are definitely planning on camping back to check out the lakes. The only negative thing was that we found some trash at our site from the previous campers. Also, some cows woke us up early in the morning, which was cool, but also scared the shit out of us!

My wife and I spent 3 days and 2 nights at Rio Costillo and really enjoyed our time.  We are typically dispersed campers, so paying to camp is a bit of a departure.  The fee to camp has increased to $30 per night, but we decided to give it try.  It was probably more about what we didn't experience that we enjoyed the most.  There is NO FIREWORKS permitted and NO ATV's permitted.  Thus, a pleasant and quiet camp trip.  There have been no recent fires in the area, so the views were beautiful!.  Not sure how many head of cattle roam the park, but they could care less about you and do not pose any threat.  The sites are spread apart so much that it feels like dispersed camping.  Portable toilets are close to all sites, but no running water.  The lakes were closed at the time of our visit (clearing the road of fallen trees we were told).  Most of the sites were close to running streams of water, though we only fished in the Rio Costilla outside the park entrance.  The fees are $30 per vehicle/night and $10 to fish per person per day.  No fee to fish in the river outside of the park, only a NM license or out of state permit.

A remote location and popular with horse campers and hunters.  The campground has sites with horse corrals installed. The campground was quiet and mostly clean. There are pit toilets on site and well maintained. Level spots with good separation. Nice hiking accross some flat lands and a smal creek runs near by. Early one morning we saw a herd of elk down in a valley near a turn out off the road.  Bears frequent the area trying to raid the garbage bins during the night. Makes tent camping a bit unnerving. If you want to explore the area, this is good place to camp.  It takes an hour to get to the campsite on a graveled road off the highway out of Cimerron.  25mph was best speed to go to handle the washboard road to the campsite.

This is 1 of 2 options for campgrounds in the Valle Vidal area. It is on the West side of the preserve and is equine friendly. This is a large campground, with 36 camping sites. We stayed at #24 which had a nice partial overlook to the opposing valley, mountainside. 

This campground is well loved, but clean and my only gripe is the pit toilets are old and in need of replacement. The host did keep them  as clean as possible with odor control devices in the stalls. 

Our campsite had a very worn and splintering wooden picnic table that really needed replacing.  We brought a table and sat at that with our 2 small children. 

Overall it is quiet and peaceful with amazing stargazing at night. 

There is a walking trail at the back of the campground to get to Surree Ponds. I would say it is of medium difficulty as there is a precarious creek crossing, and it is uphill the whole way back to camp. The view you can get from the meadows and the ponds are gorgeous at sunset. 

Word of warning, the road to get here from Amalia becomes very wash boarded. It is a long road to get here and is wash boarded the whole way. The drive through Rio Costilla Canyon is gorgeous and if you only can go that far it is well worth it.

Rio Costilla is an awesome place to camp. It’s a mountainous terrain with small lakes and streams running through the camgrounds. It’s beautiful! you can go fishing in all the lakes and is regularly stocked but also has native fish in the lakes too. This campground does get a little chilly in the night, even in summer, so bring a good sleeping bag. It will drizzle regularly and sometimes pours so prepare for that. There is no running water at this campground, so bring plenty. They have port-o-potties by every camping site and they keep them clean. They also have cattle that roam around the campground so keep your pups on a leash. The hikes they have at this place are great!! It’s really neat. If you’re lucky, you’ll see some deer on one of your hikes. The views you get as you hike farther up the mountain are breathtaking! But it is a hard hike and you can get lost so I’d recommend taking a seasoned hiker with you if you’re new. This place is awesome and my favorite camping grounds. There are no trash cans at the sights or while hiking so please pack out what you brought. There is a big dumpster on your way out that you can throw your trash there.

The park is HUGE and just so beautiful. 10,000 acres of aspens and ponderosa pines only one hour away from the town of Taos. All sites offer a fire pits and some come with nice picnic tables under roofs by the clear river. Only $25 a day you can get to enjoy the nature. We didn’t take our TRD pro Taco coz we thought our All wheel super handling SUV would be good enough but definitely there are some off-roading you can enjoy. Be sure to bring your truck or Jeep to enjoy more. No cell phone reception. There are no water available and porta potties were not ready yet. The lake was closed but we still had so much fun hiking and exploring the acres of wonderland. Will definitely go back there!