Best Campgrounds near La Joya, NM

Nice place to stay. Very responsibly priced. Easy check in. Will definitely be back when passing through.

Well appointed RV park for trailer/RV. Little close to I-40 but sound is not that bad. Picnic table, shade trees, pool, hot tub. Even accept mailing ahead(like Amazon)

Very friendly staff. Great for the balloon fiesta

Cool retro park. Hoist are really nice. Lots of things in the store Lp, full Hook ups available, pool, laundry and really neat old campers on display

It was hot in the valley so we retreated to the nearest mountains. What a quiet little camp. No huge RV’s or anything. Our 6ft wide, 20ft long trailer seemed too big. Our spot accommodated us well. The trails are fabulous. There’s a Track Trail that just opened and a motorized track wheelchair making this park very accessible. Not very many electric sites but that was ok as the temps were cooler (60’s at night)

This was a lovely spot to overnight just about 20 minutes off I-25 near Socorro NM. Great views and incredible star gazing. This is an important rock climbing destination and there are several hiking trails if have more time than we did.

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is a bird nerd’s paradise during the winter.  Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes, and thousands of others congregate in this wetland wonderland. Here, the Rio Grande pauses on its long winding path to the Gulf of Mexico and allows these waterfowl and other migratory birds a place of rest and safety during their bi-annual migration. It’s an amazing place, but it does not allow camping within the park. 

Just a few miles to the north of the visitor’s center, in the quaint hamlet of San Antonio, lies Riverine Park. Slightly difficult to find in the dark and with a steep entrance, the few campsite spots offer visitors a great place close to the National Wildlife Refuge for the night within striking distance of the dawn patrol show (when the flocks take off for the day). Dawn and dusk are something to behold, so get your cameras ready! 

The campsites themselves are loosely defined, but a few actually have developed campfire pits and picnic tables. There are no toilets here, but there are lovely facilities in the park itself.  There’s not much room for a trailer longer than 20 feet, but feel free to give it a looksee before committing to the downhill entry point– which is short and steep.  With big cottonwood trees scattered throughout the area, we got some solar charging with our rooftop panels, but needed to move our portable solar panel around to collect a bit more.  Starlink worked well though!

In addition to birdwatching there are numerous, unlabeled trails and access roads all along the river bank and the canal for walking, or biking. The opportunities can also be found within the wildlife refuge as well.  Nearby services can be found in San Antonio, Socorro, or Truth or Consequences, NM, with the latter being the biggest town within an hour’s drive.

First night (Friday) was great. Quiet. Saturday was quiet as well. Not much to catch at the lake. 3pm someone rolls up next to us. Definitely in the wrong spot and he would have known that if he was aware of the “back in” policy. Gave the lake caretaker a call, no answer. No big deal they were quiet. Until 10pm. Loud music. Karaoke with children screaming into the mic with the already loud sound system. Tried calling the caretaker, no answer mailbox full. Didn’t want to bother the police department so decided to wait and see if one of the kids woke up and then I’d call, figuring then I’d be super late. The music stopped suddenly my guess is around 12-2am. I guessing someone called the police or got a hold of the caretaker. Will stay again, however the campsite needs to be checked on by the county imo. If this were to happen again, I’d call non-emergency PD to deal with it.

Ok for an overnight stop. Just the basics but clean. Terrible internet. Only one restroom.

Remote, wooded, serene. Sites are gravel, but not very level. Each site has a picnic table, grill & fire pit. Some sites have power, but none have sewer or water hookups. There is a dump station & drinking water. If you want to get away from it all, this is the place.

We used it as a home base to explore greater ABQ, so it was all we needed.  Staff very friendly, and a nice little shop.  Sites are level hardscrabble, typical of NM lowlands.  They were having trouble with the WiFi for our particular loop, but have enough options to overcome such problems.

Very nice campground, and only $18/night for water and electric.  Beautiful mountain setting with lots of pine trees and cool mornings.  Had hoped to do some road biking but the steep gravel proved intimidating for the less experienced in the group.

Really a pretty cool spot that can be warmer than Albuquerque, and especially warmer than Santa Fe. 100% no fire, even smoking banned they claim. May help keep numbers low. Only person I saw appeared to be road construction exploring where the road went (think they were working on Rio grande bridge maybe). Lots and lots of space in the big trees by the river, but if you look in there at night with a flash light you may notice a lot of spider eyes shining back at you. I actually parked right by river, probably not exactly correct spot probably (would be very tight fit with trailer). No spider eyes. Plenty of room for car/truck to turn around. Probably stayed 3 nights total. The turn offs from the braised berm down to camp areas can be steep looking, just choose your angle wisely. The roads seem to loop back up to berm after winding through trees, some tighter areas to maneuver around for sure. I doubt anyone would give you trouble sleeping on the unpaved road itself opposite side of trees either. Very little traffic. Weekends may have some local traffic non overnight traffic too, fishing, skeet shooting, etc. Based on debris around river, and the most traffic I saw was on Sunday (2 -3 trucks at once rather than 1/48hours.

I’d crash here again for the price.

quiet. lots of trees, hard to find a spot for starlink

Pat and Wanda are very nice and I hope folks support their dream! That being said, know that this place is very much still under construction. We had the bad luck of coming after a snowmelt and being there during some subsequent bad weather, which meant it was extremely muddy, the trash was full, and the porta poddy was getting full (plus it ran out of tp and we used our own. I think that’s probably different in better weather. Also it’s listed as having laundry but it doesn’t!

Unfortunately while we were there I got a bad cut on my hand and needed to leave a day early go to urgent care. We got stuck in the mud then tried unsuccessfully to get ahold of Pat for 2 hours, although he was very helpful when he finally came. But be careful parking in any sites, especially lower ones, if there’s been much precipitation.

Otherwise our stay was cold and wet but quiet. Lights at the sites are a nice touch. No Verizon service, there’s wifi but it’s not very good in some sites.

I liked it a lot. It’s $30/night, has full hookups, nice spaces with trees. They have fire pits and provided firewood. There’s water and a port-a-potty but no showers and no dump site. There are bear proof trash cans. The owners are on site and are a very nice older couple.

Apple Maps correctly labels the road as 4th of July Canyon Rd. Google maps calls it A013. There’s a little dirt road immediately after the cemetery on the right. It’s about a half mile down that dirt road on the right. There is a sign that says “RV park”, but it’s small so keep a close eye out for it.

There is also a small C Store in town with some supplies. It’s best to fill up your tank before leaving Albuquerque. Gas stations are few and far between and very pricy. It’s about an hour from Albuquerque. I have T-Mobile and had 3 solid bars with good speed.