Best Tent Camping near La Joya, NM

This was our first time camping in the Manzanos. The campsites are well made with a picnic table and fire ring. There isn’t a tent pad but all of the spots have a nice section of relatively flat ground. There are several vault toilets spread through the site. Cost is $7 per night. There is no water source at or near the campsites so make sure to bring enough for your stay. The campground is clean and well maintained. The sites are relatively close together but the campsite wasn’t crowded. The road in is a forest road. SUV’s will be fine but starting to push it for cars. You can walk from the sites to the Fourth of July trail

Close to White Sands. Note: winter hours gate is closed 6pm-8am. Wouldn’t want to navigate the entrance road after dark anyways. Road is paved and in good condition however. This campground is on the side of a mountain. Views of Organ Mountains driving in is breathtaking and windy - limit on vehicle length. No water except at camp host when you drive in - several miles before campground. Site was $7. Pay at self service kiosk. My parking pad was not level would definitely be more careful to choose a site that was more level bc I slept in car but many are not because of the hilly terrain. Chilly and rained hard at night while I was there. Great shelters and concrete pad at each site and fire ring. Gorgeous alligator juniper trees. Vault toilets - no other amenities. Mountain View and view of valley is amazing.

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 love it here! We stayed for a weekend at campsite #6. Ours and A few other sites have RV hookups (electric only). No sewer hook up but dump station on site with water. There are multiple Drinking water spigots available; one next to our campsite 6, at the group shelter, by the dump station, and another spigot at the office / visitor center (closed right now) but that had a lock on it. Some sites have a nice brick and metal shelter and a charcoal grill, but all sites seem to have a picnic table, and fire ring. This is a pretty small electrical loop campground and some sites are pretty close, separated by trees, and vary in driveway length. There’s tent sites (some have good privacy) as well as day-use only sites that look very clean and with shelter. Our site had the picnic table and charcoal grill on one side of the driveway and the fire pit on the other side which is kind of weird but that just means we can drive in or back in depending on our awning side preference. I saw in some reviews that this was a problem for people.

Behind our site there’s a horseshoe area and group site not too far after. The group site has a small parking lot across the way for it and has a large shelter area with nice cement tables and large grills. Next to the office there’s a trail for the outer loop and nature trail. There are several trails within the park and all are pretty easy (kid-friendly) and not too long. This is a pet-friendly campground with dog stations to pick up after your pet. Make sure to bring your own firewood and kindling as gathering is not allowed in the area. There is phone signal for t-mobile and Verizon as well. Vault toilets were clean but no showers.

There is no lake or stream/river in the state park. The nearest lake is Manzano Lake it’s about 10 minutes from the campground in the small town of Manzano. Fishing and picnicking, not a very large lake - more like a pond really but still beautiful and something to see and do. Currently the lake just opened and there’s a sign at the entrance that the fish have not been stocked. Not much for some decent stores around but a grocery store in Mountainair (25 mins away) Also nearby is the Quarai Ruins (15 mins) to check out which has some trails and also pet friendly so long as they’re on a leash.

Also, getting here by GPS, just takes you to where the pavement ends on HWY-131 but you’ll need to go another mile on unpaved road to get the the campground. Just follow the signs for the state park. Also, make sure to check on weather because although the unpaved road is typically well-grated and maintained; when it rains hard - it tends to wash out which makes the last mile to the state park hard for some. Also, there’s not gas stations nearby to this camp.

Overall a great and beautiful place to stay. Definitely bring some bug spray and repellent, lots of flies and mosquitoes to be had! There’s not a whole lot to do besides relax, eat, and check out some trails so bring your own entertainment as we brought a remote control all-terrain car, frisbees, lawn darts, board games, card games, etc to entertain the kids. We would definitely recommend the place and we will certainly be back!

You don't often find free developed camping at the end of a paved road in New Mexico, but Water Canyon is one of those exceptions.  It seems to be one of those spots that people don't take the time to get off the highway to explore -- on a weekday in July there was only one other campsite occupied.

There are about a dozen campsites, vault toilets, trash cans, a group campsite at the bottom of the hill and easy access to some great hiking trails, all about ten minutes outside of Socorro and an hour from Albuquerque.

While the campground is free for now, I did see some notices posted about the Forest Service taking public comment on levying a $10 per night fee per site.