Best Campgrounds in New Mexico

We were warned.  The trip to the campground was 50ish miles of very rough dirt roads.  Took over two hours to make the drive.  We arrived at the campground mid-day and were pretty surprised.  As mentioned in another review, there are two loops.  There is a sunny loop and a shady loop.  We opted for the sunny loop for the view of Snow Lake.  We tow a 19' travel trailer and there were very few sites that would accommodate it.  I have to say that the sites were very overgrown and far from level. In the sunny loop, you can see every other camper there.

The shady loop seemed pretty nice although again, the sites were smallish and not at all level.

The bathrooms were clean and well cared for and there were well maintained water spigots for drinking water.

Dripping Vat is on the Continental Divide Trail (hiking) and we had a steady stream of through hikers.

Snow Lake is a small 90-acre lake with a nice boat ramp.  The scenery was spectacular and overall, we enjoyed our stay.  Its Just not a place we will return to.

The spot is really close (2 miles) to the town of Chama, New Mexico (elevation about 8,000ft in Southern Rockies) and has one outdoor toilet, open areas for RVs or tents no electrical hook ups or water. Pets allowed. Wonderful views of the mountains and a good road and trail for hiking and biking and horseback riding. There are creeks, small ponds, maybe a lake deeper in, fir, aspen, and pine trees. You can roam off the road/trail anywhere. iIf you get a combination to the lock on the gate you can drive your vehicle down I rode that goes deep into the wilderness area for fishing and hunting. It is run by the New Mexico wild wildlife services. At sunrise or sunset you are very likely to see elk maybe even a whole herd and other wildlife. You cannot camp there in the winter but it’s great for cross country skiing. There’s also a laundromat just down the road, probably a mile from the camping area. I live in the region and often go there throughout the year to take my dog on walks or cross country ski.

I found this campground on the Dyrt before visiting Los Alamos, NM. I checked out the website a little bit too, but didn’t see that reservations could be made ahead of time. Everything I read on the Dyrt said it was first come first serve. When we got here, there was a QR code on the electrical box that took me to an online reservation site. I called the parks department and the lady I talked to said they changed it about 6 months ago and it was no longer first come first served. Luckily she was able to tell me which two sites were available for the time I wanted to stay, and I was able to get it reserved online after that. There were several sites that were empty, and stayed that way overnight into the next day, even though they were “unavailable” online. Someone else kept changing their spot to try and have more room, so I’m guessing a lot of people still assume it’s first come. If you don’t want to risk it, make a reservation ahead of time.

The park (parking lot) is very basic with electrical hookups at each site. There is a dump station and a water station to fill tanks as well. The spaces are pretty narrow, so an awning can’t be fully extended. All spaces are pull-through and have plenty of room for long rigs and vehicles. Some spaces are decently level, but others need leveling blocks.

There’s a dog run area with artificial turf and a water pump and bowl. It was clean and well kept.

There is a shuttle area with bathrooms nearby, but the bathrooms were locked and there was no shuttle service when we were here.

Overall, this was a good short-term RV park for our quick visit. It had everything we needed.