Searching for the perfect place to pitch your tent near Elephant Butte? The Dyrt is an easy way to find tent camping spots near Elephant Butte. From remote to easy-to-reach, these Elephant Butte campsites are perfect for tent campers.
6 campsites with Adirondack shelters provide access to Apache Kid Wilderness and San Mateo Peak Lookout by hiking or horseback.
Small campground located along the north side of New Mexico Highway 152, near mile marker 40, near Middle Percha Creek, on the eastern edge of the small town of Kingston, NM.
This is a beautiful remote camping area. Trail #94 begins at the rear of the campground.Located in a remote area of forest__approximately 30 miles from the Wilderness Ranger District office. This campground is accessible from FR 150, and driving approximately .5 miles from the road, across the stream. You will enter an area with a newer vault toilet__and a beautiful meadow next to the stream.Please be advised - the district recommends high-clearance 4x4 vehicles on FR 150.
This is a fairly small campground and is popular with horse riders and hunters.
Lower Gallinas Campground is situated in a tight little canyon and is easily accessed by New Mexico Highway 152. It is approximately 35 miles east of Silver City within the Black Range Mountains.
Black Canyon Campground offers a great remote camping experience.Located in a remote area of the forest__approximately 30 miles from the Wilderness Ranger District office. This campground is accessible from Forest Road 150 (North Star Road). The upper campground is the first camping area__you will come across and is visible from the entrance road.The forest recommends high-clearance 4x4 vehicles on Forest Road 150.
Scout
I love the Elephant Butte State Park and have stayed around 4 times. February 2024 I spent a week there in my small travel trailer. It can be quite windy in Feb/Mar so before booking I called the park office ans asked which campground might be more wind sheltered. They suggested Quail Run so that is what I booked. It was more out of the wind and a very nice, less exposed area. /bear in mind, the excellent prices are ending for 2025 and will be considerably more. I plan to spend a few days there in Dec before the prices go up.
Ranger
This small camp site is next to Smokey Bear Historical Park and museum is in a small town of Capitan, New Mexico.
ScoutOk RV PRk. No showers or rest rooms, Needs a serious upgrade. Owner is nice. Lots of permanent trailers. Goat heads are everywhere, along with lots if weeds.
Guide
Great campground. Good size spots with good distance between sites. Ramadas at each site provide precious shade. Lots of trash bins nearby. Long flat trail (bike/walk) starts at the campground. Note that is has a boat launch except there’s no more water in this area.
GuideGreat flat spot with great views. It’s inside the Elephant Butte lake state park, but seems to be a dispersed site. No one around. No amenities. There is a vault toilet maybe a half mile away. There are pay stations around. We had paid for a site on south Monticello campground but came here instead.
Scoutgreat rural campground. lake valley ghost town is worth the ride
Guide
Very clean and well maintained. Staff were very friendly. No shade for the trailer, but the covered picnic table was good. Electric hookup worked. Water was off due to water system maintenance. We were able to fill up at the campground below the dam. Quiet at night, just some road noise from the highway. The lake is great with easy access for kayaking at the boat ramp. We would stay here again.
LegendSituated on the edge of a sprawling reservoir along the Rio Grande river, this park is the perfect place to enjoy the vast landscape of the area. The nearby town of Truth or Consequences, NM is small, but has all the services you might need for food, gas, supplies, or soaking in hot springs.
The campground is well spaced out, each spot has a picnic table with shade/rain structure (I’ll let you guess which purpose gets more use) and nearly all have electricity and water. That means NO generators! The bath house is clean and offers flush toilets, running sinks and warm showers. All sites are reservation only, but you can do that when you get there as there is plenty of LTE cell service. We've never seen this place crowded in the winter months. For what you get at this campground, it’s a bargain at twice the price.
The campground is ideal for solar power, as is the New Mexico weather. We also had no problem connecting with Starlink. Hiking, mountain biking, boating, fishing and all other sorts of desert recreation is available right from the campground. Definitely worth the visit!
Scout
Stayed in the open area not at a site . Area I parked had a big area with shaded trees, very quite at night and had no issues with neighbors
Guide
When I called about availability we were told there were a lot of dry spots available. Works for us! When we got there the person at gate had no idea where the campgrounds were and would not let us check out sites without paying for day use. The campground had water shutoff on Memorial Day weekend. No bathrooms or showers.
Management aside, this place is gorgeous. We dry camped by lake right under mountains. Would not pay for campground with no water but for $10 to dry camp by the water, love it.
Great T-Mobile service. Easy to access.
TravelerClean, quiet campground not far from Emory pass. Pit toilets, fire rings, and picnic tables. Only a handful of people there on Friday night
RangerBeautiful scenery, clean facilities. Sites in the main campground are kinda close together, but dispersed camping has better views and plenty of space. Good Verizon service, hot showers.
Guide
Highly recommend this gem. It’s tucked away and such a cozy and slow place to stay. We stayed in a campsite for 5 nights. Highly recommend more than one day so you can enjoy the springs and the town! It has lovely clean hot spring tubs that are open 24/7. It’s an intimate camp so we rarely had to wait for a tub. Also has clean bathrooms and showers and a grill. 2 blocks away from Main Street and 2 blocks from the Rio grande. Great host and great service too.
RangerStay for two days to allow us to visit Gila lift Dwellings. Full hookups (30 amp) with water and sewer. Good cell coverage. Amazing Starlink speeds. Staff was awesome and they filled our propane for us.
ScoutThe site was clean the hookups were in good condition. We enjoyed our stay. There is a huge tower of some kind, maybe cellphone, in the middle of the park.
RangerVery quiet with water and electric at each site. Spaced out a bit and you can walk to the lake but no real views of it. There is a 12 mile trail that takes off from here. Well laid out and very easy walking. Otherwise during the winter it is great but I'm guessing very hot in summer with no shade.
Guide
There are plenty of nice spots to camp along North Star Road, north of Mimbres, NM. You'll find dispersed campsites with fire-rings all along the edges of the road and on spur forest roads sprouting from it. North Star Road is usually well maintained and most vehicles should make it to at least North Star Mesa.
Nothing in terms of services and amenities, but nice hiking nearby. Very clear skies at night.
As always, please follow LNT principles when dispersed camping.
Legend
General: There are many different camping options at this state park from dispersed (especially on the beach) to those with electric/water hookups. We stayed in the Lions Beach campground with the w/e hookups.
Site Quality: Lions Beach is laid out much like an RV park with little to no separation between sites. Each site has a fire ring, and covered picnic table in addition to the hookups. The driveway was paved and level.
Bath/Shower: Only vault toilets close to the Lions Beach campground. They are ADA accessible complete with a ramp but although clean, there was no hand sanitizer in any of them. The only restrooms with running water, flush toilets, and showers are located about a mile from Lions Beach and IMO, not adequate for the crowds this park attracts, especially on the weekends. The showers looked sketchy, and I decided not to use them.
Activities: If you like to fish or have a boat, this is the place for you! There is a marina. Some hiking trails. We enjoyed Riverbed Hot Springs a few miles down the road in Truth or Consequences. We don’t have a boat or fish so although we stayed for two nights, we chose this campground because it was on our route.
Because dispersed camping on the beach is allowed, it is very popular, especially on the weekends but be warned the sand is soft and deep – I’m not sure how vehicles without 4-wheel drive can navigate it without getting stuck. We were told there were wall-to-wall RVs on the beach on the weekend before our arrival (third weekend in April) so thankfully we were not there on a weekend! If we were to return, we would select the sites overlooking the lake on Ridge Road with no hookups but generally, not our preferred camping vibe but for others, it might be different.
Scout
I have no interest in fishing by the river but we choose to camp and make food together, enjoy pizza tower and play all night.
ScoutClean restrooms, comfy outdoor furniture and terrific vibe ! We really enjoyed staying here this past spring and plan to return this winter!
GuideSite is typical for state campground, well maintained, clean with water, electricity, RV dump, and showers (had hot water!). Sites are fairly level on asphalt pads. Childrens' playground on site. The lake is very low during my visit but still had some boating going on. Nice trails adjacent to campgrounds. Great reception for Mint. Internet is available for $8/day. Fair connection, I was able to watch movies and football without too much buffering.
I stayed at the Desert Cove campground. It was quiet and well maintained. Stayed a couple of nights on long trip to rest up. I would stay here a again.
Note: Seems every park is going the way of private booking for reservations and NM is no different. Had to book on line or phone. Used both methods and was fairly easy.
Guide
This is a nice place overlooking Caballo Lake there are only four transient spaces. Most of them are long-term people I would happen to be lucky enough to get one. The cost is $26.31 if you pay cash and a dollar extra for credit card they have showers bathrooms Wi-Fi full hook up.
Legend
We enjoyed how small this campsite is and we were the only people there during our visit.
I gave it 3 stars because it’s right next to the road, but also next to the water.
It has large trees and flat camping spots. It even has a vault toilet.
ScoutThis review is for dispersed camping. The lake water is murky, goathead thorns are everywhere, and you will hear and see Hwy 25. The park is old and not maintained well. The hosts don't use the restrooms and the paid staff don't care, so toilet paper dispensers go unfilled, lights burn out so you need a flashlight at night (bring one anyways because they're on a timer), showers don't work or work poorly, the buildings aren't heated in winter, the water is too hot to shower with in July/Aug, etc. If you say anything you are regarded as a complainer and will receive either an apathetic or a hostile response. The rangers are the worst- they drive around in trucks with blacked-out windows like wannabe feds, and won't stop if you try to flag one down. Someone destroyed the sidewall of one of my new tires when I was parked near the boat ramp, watch your belongings. Locals intentionally walk right through your site (along the lake adjacent to boat ramp) between your vehicle and the picnic table, so their kids can mess with your stuff. If you say anything, do you remember being mercilessly bullied in grade school for not being of a certain group? You can relive that garbage here, parents encourage their kids to be truly stupid and hateful. Welcome to NM. If you stay at Caballo long enough maybe you can appreciate why many people who grow up here can't wait to get out as soon as they can. Locals come out in droves weekends, so visit weekdays if you value peace.
ScoutSuch a beautiful view! The water was high so we couldn’t camp to close to the river edge. It was so nice to see all the stars at night. It is very sweet as well. Really enjoyed our stay with rocket bot royale
ScoutThe current (8/23) camp host screamed obscenities at me and told me to leave the park "for BLM land" because I asked the neighboring campsite (where he was partying) to please tone it down after 10 pm, during quiet hours. Yep, he's still here, park mgmt like volunteers with his attitude so you won't criticize anything. Rangers don't care, if not worse- I've had property destroyed in addition to hostility from this host. Rangers drive around in pickups with blacked-out windows like wannabe feds, and don't stop if you try to wave them down. The host attempts to look macho riding around on a lawnmower every day- it's about all he does- but he doesn't use the restrooms so he doesn't care what condition they're in, if showers don't work, lights are burnt out, toilet paper dispensers are empty, etc. He'll tell you that he's only an unpaid volunteer and it's not his job. Paid maintenance "clean" restrooms/outhouses with a filthy bucket of slop and a toilet brush that they use on every toilet seat- it's just as well they drive away and don't "clean" at all if you are in the outhouse (I've been here 5 days and the women's side has not been cleaned once.) You can see their priorities when they spend days with weed wackers somewhere, but nobody ever trims the junipers that are growing over the crumbling sidewalks to the outhouse, or around the water spigots in the same area. This demonstrates the difference between looking busy/macho and actually caring about the public. "You don't matter and we don't care" is the motto here, especially if you ask for anything unreasonable, like observing quiet hours or refilling toilet paper. Goathead thorns are everywhere, watch your dog's paws. The raccoons are amusing if they're not getting into your stuff. The river, when it exists is brown and gross, but locals and Texans come out in large noisy crowds weekends to swim and fish in this junk. Ironically, I bet they're the same ones who deride the goals of the CWA… The positive is weekday birding, if you can deal with some truly stupid and hateful people. Just this summer I've seen 1 painted bunting, summer tanagers, Bullocks orioles, sandhill cranes- even a couple of vermillion flycatchers that live near the host's site, which I bet he's never noticed. In the fall there's no hunting in this park, so it's a refuge for many types of ducks, and a small herd of deer sleep in the grassy sites along the river. In spite of being close to the highway and seasonal agricultural activities, this could be a nice park if anyone cared, but that won't happen because it's rural southern NM. A weird mix of apathy and hostility is the prevailing attitude here.
ScoutLower Gallinas is a beautiful 2 Mile hike Barricaded at 152 it should be reopened ASAP
Frequently Asked Questions
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According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular tent campground near Elephant Butte, NM is Springtime Campground with a 4-star rating from 1 review.
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TheDyrt.com has all 11 tent camping locations near Elephant Butte, NM, with real photos and reviews from campers.
