Best Equestrian Camping near Dexter, NM

Great scenery here, and luckily New Mexico now allows camping again at its state parks, but... there are about a trillion sandburs on the grass here. We have 4 dogs and have spent an inordinate amount of time saving their paws from the burs. Love the looks, wouldn’t bring pets.

I bought a year pass during covid for New Mexico State park in 2019. I only used it 2 times and parks shut down. Now due to fires many parks have had to close. I do not recommend buying a year pass . I received no notification of any compensation for not being able to use the parks.

Very pretty. Not a lot of hiking. Decent campsites. Really hot in the afternoon in May, but still cool at night. The staff does a pretty good job at trying to keep up with visitors' messes but there's still trash in a lot of places... i.e. bathroom, Lea Lake, shower, campsites. Might be better for winter camping. The night sky has some light pollution but it's still very pretty. There's shelters at the sites but the sun can be brutal so bring an extra tarp and rope for shade. Lots of bunnies, hawks, other birds, lizards and some tiny fish were seen on our trip.

Dexter and Roswell are close enough for resupply if need be.

The lake in natural spring fed so it's very cold. Even a shocker in 100+ degree temps. Totally worth it though.

Bringing your own grill might be better especially with the wind and common drought environment.

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!

This place has quite a few campsites to choose from. Where I stayed we had our own picnic table and steel awning with a concrete patio. The main recreation area is soo pretty. The beach is nice and there are plenty of picnic tables and awnings. The orange rock is just beautiful.

Nice lake for swimming, they rent paddle boats, bathhouse, sun shelters, it’s hot here but lake was very refreshing, lots to explore in area

Arriving late into the night it was unclear if we would have a spot. When we read the signage at the front we followed the directions and eventually found a space which wasn’t so clearly marked.

Because of the rain we set up underneath the awning of the picnic area hoping we would be ok. The next morning we were greeted by the camp host who told us someone had in fact purchased that site the night before but never arrived so though we had set up in the wrong space it was ok.

Sites were simply not clearly marked for late arriving guests.

Otherwise showers were hot, restrooms were clean and facilities looked nice had it not have been so rainy with recreational areas.

There are some really beautiful sights at this campground. Be prepared for a rocky and long drive in. You won’t have much signal and there might be an echo of voices from all the open space. The stars are great and the lakes are really neat. Lots of bats!

Plenty of level sites, all within walking distance of the lake. Great wifi! Iffy AT&T service.

This is by far one of my favorite places to camp. We got here late at night and the people were so nice, even willing to help set up our camp. The lake was absolutely beautiful the water was perfect we got to see a lot of wildlife and our campsite was really close to the water. The weather was perfect and we were only about 15 minutes outside of Roswell. Can't wait to do it again.

A fun lake to snorkle! Not many trees at the sites. Great wifi with a booster (at&t and verizon). Pets allowed. A lot of places to walk.

Beautiful desert landscapes littered with deep lakes ranging from small to rather large. Public swimming area in one of the lakes, and it has saltwater in it... the water is ice cold and super refreshing, once you get acclimated to it, lol. There’s hiking trails, ports-johns, and RV hookups. Be ready for flies in the summer though. At night, make sure you take the time to see how many stars are really up there, because the light pollution is very low at this sight.

Fun place to spend the weekend, we tent camped at D4 and it was quite and peaceful, great bike trail leading to the big lake too!

Super fun day trip with friends. You can rent paddle boards for cheap, and the water is surprisingly clear and blue. It’s a kind of oasis for people surrounded by dirt and cacti. Also have covered picnic tables to eat and outdoor shower heads to rinse of the salt water.

Summer is hot out here bring sunscreen. Watch for snakes as well but overall safe.

It rained the whole 3 nights I was here in October, but that isn’t the campgrounds fault! It was beautiful and not terribly busy which I liked. I got the bejeezus scared out of me by what appeared to be maybe a bobcat walking back from the bathroom to my campsite—never saw it but it sounded like a crying baby?! Which, honestly, just made it all more awesome.

The sites are nicely spaced, close to the water, tables and shade. okay bathrooms and visitor center. It's a place that locals visit frequently. I went on a Saturday, both the campsites and lake were packed. There was litter EVERYWHERE. I usually bring a trash bag and pick up items along my hikes. Not something I could of done here. It's such a shame to see a beautiful park trashed. It made it really hard to enjoy the park. There was a hiking trail that went out the the other 'lakes'. Doesn't seem like anyone goes for the hikes, cause I didn't see anyone the whole time. The 'lakes' are just small murky ponds. Some have campsites next to them. Several folks have died jumping in the smaller lakes, so please refrain the urge! It's an okay place to stop if you are just passing thro and it's the only other thing available. I wouldn't recommend it as a weekend trip.

We decided to take our girls tent camping for the first time here. Had a nice spot (D4) and some shade. Was too hot to stay the whole night so we went home. Saw some cool animals and had a raccoon raid the garbage can. Definitely will camp again..during the week of winter in January or February...

It was hot but not much humidity. Only flies were a nuisance, not many mosquitoes or anything. Campground hosts were a very friendly elderly couple. Price was $14 a night or $40 a week. Older, reasonably clean bathrooms with showers. Water and electric hookups. We could not use the charcoal grills on our visit due to a no burn advisory. Water was cool and amazing, great cliff side scenery, we even hiked. Clean beach to swim at as well.

Camp ground is nice. Not much shade but the lakes are really cool to explore. Very nice facilities.

Nice small lake,but has a Big Racoom troubles.

We had Bottomless Lakes on our radar to stop for the night as we left Santa Fe to head to Carlsbad Caverns. Looked like a nice enough place, but no campfires were allowed due to a burn ban (didn't even look to be rings) so we opted to continue heading south to see what we could find. Turns out not a lot as we ended up at the Carlsbad KOA, but it was an hour closer to the park the following morning AND they allowed campfires!

Traveling back from Texas, I had planned an overnight in this State Park. Due to weather, I ended up staying 3 additional days. And, so happy I did! It was a short and easy ride into Roswell to tour the alien paraphernalia.  And, I also took in Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge. The sand cranes were arriving and it was interesting to see them create line formations in the valleys. The bottomless lakes were mesmerizing and the sunsets beyond compare! Being winter, there were only a few in the campground. It made for a nice, relaxing experience.

About 300 feet from the Lea Lakes RV camp/hookups is a gravel/dirt road heading west into BLM land. There’s a small parking lot at the end where one can post up for the night with lake and sunset views.

Good AT&T service. Watch out for mosquitos.

I wanted to stay longer than 3 days. Had the pleasure of experiencing the Super moon. Site 15 is a great spot.

Bottomless lakes has the best sunset views. It’s only 20 min from Roswell. The sites have enough room between each other. There is a large swimming area as well.

I can't say enough about this park. Full hookups. Great views and the lake is fabulous.