Best Campgrounds near Los Alamos, NM

I often camp by Diablo Canyon, which has wonderful sunsets and decent off trail hiking.  There's even a cave for those who know where to find it. 

I've also camped down by the river for the access to water for splashing about and cooking, but the area is popular with Mexican families and sometimes attracts a party crowd.

There are plenty of more remote spots off the main gravel road that would be even quieter.  The terrain is juniper and oak, with cottonwoods by the river. 

Temperatures run hot in the summer and freezing in winter, although it is the best choice for winter camping near Santa Fe.   Summers the wife and I most often drive up Artist Road and camp at Big Tesuque or the skiiiway at the top, but we did choose Buckman this summer when thunderstorms pounded the mountains. 

It does take time to drive the gravel road, and there's not much for ordinary folks around Las Campanas, the wealthy housing division between the camping and town.  You might get to Airport Road and Cerrillos under an hour, but getting to the Plaza will take longer. 

Cell service is spotty.

This is such a mixed review. We stayed here the weekend of July 26. We arrived Friday night and found a beautiful campsite on the right side of the entrance with a beautiful view of the canyon below. Watching the sunset over the ridge is breathtaking. We enjoyed our time until Saturday evening right about 8:30 where we were watching the sunset from the ridge. We heard one gunshot, followed by 6 gunshots and the sound of bullets whizzing past us. We immediately ducked behind the car. We had not heard any gunshots the whole day and did not see any hunting areas nearby. Where the sound of the bullets and gunshots were from it felt like someone was shooting directly at our campsite from beside us or in the canyon. We made it to the car and got out to the Hw 4 to flag someone down given that we had no cell service. A man stopped and told us that unfortunately that’s pretty common in the area and it was probably just some drunk assholes and it was not malicious. We were so shaken we could not stay there that night and packed up as quickly as we could. I enjoyed the beauty of this area but would not stay here again after this experience.

Based on the reviews I thought this place would be a cool oasis up in the trees. Alas, it's not. There's a loop with 14 total sites. Unfortunately, at least half the sites in the inner ring are unusable because of road runoff making it tough to get to them, and we have a Toyota Tacoma. As a result, they do not get used and are, therefore, overgrown with New Mexico ground cover, which is not comparable to soft grass. That immediately bumps it down to about 10 sites. When we arrived, there was one site available that we could access. It was behind the main trailhead parking area and completely shaded. All in all, not bad, just not our ideal choice since it's right there close to any and all foot traffic. Luckily, as we walked the rest of the loop to see if there was anything else, a couple was just finishing packing up so we were able to snag their spot (#13), which we felt was the best one. Score! 

Now, let's talk the road to get there. Absolutely do not try to take a camper of any size to this campground unless it's a legit overland type tear or squaredrop, ideally with an articulating hitch. People are not kidding when they say that's not a good idea. We had our Tacoma in 4L and I'm honestly not sure how some 2WD vehicles make it. There are many spots where the incline is pretty good, a number of deep crevices as a result of water runoff, many sections that are absolutely one lane only, and at least 6 spots where there was a small pond of standing water to drive through. Were any of the ponds show stoppers, no, but the water in one dip came up past the bottom of our doors. All in all, the road is no joke. Yes, I get this is a forest road, but the road snakes through multiple pieces of residential property (albeit they are probably summer homes but we saw people at almost every house when we drove past), and there's a hiking trailhead at the campground, so I expected it to be not THAT bad. In my book, it's not officially 'offroading' but it's worse than other forest service roads we've been on. Oh, and the couple residents we passed driving in their vehicles (you can tell by looking at them they are not campers or hikers) made it abundantly clear they weren't happy with us being on their road. All in all, nice campground with great trailheads but there are too many other beautiful places to hike and camp in NM for us to want to go back.

There are about 10 (couldn't tell exactly due to the number of cars, campers, and tents) sites all lined up next to each other like parking spots in a Walmart parking lot. There's nothing that separates you from your neighbor. And, there's a rundown house with what appears to be 3 or 4 abandoned cars (at least they certainly do not look like they'd run) less than 100 yards to the south of the 'campground'.  I can see why this is a popular spot, as it is right along the river, but there's no way I would ever camp there. That said, we went (or tried to, we didn't actually stay there) in late July, in the height of summer, so there were a TON people, cars, and campers all going up and down Highway 63 from Pecos. If the weather is nice, just know there will be a lot, and it ends up being more like a party private campground than a small, national forest environment. But regardless, unless it's the middle of winter, which may guarantee we wouldn't have someone else camping 12 feet from us, it's a hard pass for us on this one.

Black Canyon Campground is just before the Hyde Memorial State Park entrance. From what I could see for the latter, for RV's there's only one option and this is the campground on the left (west side) while heading up 475 after entering the State Park. The other campground on the right (east) is currently closed for renovations. The West side campground has 10 sites - #37-46. That's it. 

The Piggyback trailhead is located in the closed campground. Even this looked like it hadn't been used in awhile, with one bridge crossing blockaded. While hiking through I observed that it appears the East side campground has been closed for awhile evidenced by a tree growing through a bench near the Tesuque Creek. I did a little research and one article says the campground closed in 10/23 for a complete solar install. I did see 2 electric boxes in the ground where the road used to be? Another article said this campground closed due to water filtration issues. I believe this because there is still no water at this campground as of 7/25.

All this being said, the park is close to Santa Fe, a beautiful drive up into the mountains and if you can snag one of the few spots in the open campground, it's a win for the location and electric if you need it. Also, a level pad, picnic table, fire ring. I fit a 25' Class C in no problem. I would skip site 37.  Next time, I would stay at Black Canyon. It's cheaper for about the same amenities and I didn't really need the electric hook up.

It’s bitter sweet - out camping in what was a devastating fire so hot i see burnt stumps but also witnessing the forrest coming back and healing. No longer charred and black, but shrubs have moved in and groves of Aspen are crawling back up and some pines survived to prove shade on some of the turnoffs. Definitely recommend clearance 4wd. It was muddy and rocky after some rains. Spots closer to road are available to cars but i drove back until i didn’t want to cross a mud pit and found a grove of trees to call home while I explore. The speed test of reported on here was starlink, no mobile device.