Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Los Alamos, NM

Campground is nestled in a bug group of dense pines and only a 15-20 minute drive from Los Alamos. Quite a few hiking trails in the areas to explore the high desert mesas and escape the heat of Albuquerque.

Rio Chama RV park in Chama, New Mexico, is at the intersection of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the upper Rio Chama. A nice place to stay May 1 thru mid October. The train passing by twice a day is an exciting event and it's a short walk to the train yard.

Pull through sites have great shade and full hookups with 30 or 50 amp electrical service. Spacious tent sites with full service restrooms nearby. Pet friendly with dog park and free wifi. A great place for fishing, train watching and relaxing.

Super clean Polite staff Firewood available Brand new playground 20 min from Santa Fe Showers / bathrooms 30/50 amp Fenced dog parks/fire pit areas fenced for pets Lots of space between units

Stopped by this KOA to see what it offered for possible future stays. It's a compact campground that provides pull through sites as well as back-in and tent sites. They offer everything from 50 amp electric to cable TV. Sites are clean and neat. There's a dog park for your pets. Bathrooms are clean with hot showers. They have cabins available as well.

Great location for exploring Sandra Fe, Bandelier, and other national monuments.

This county facility is basically a parking lot with spaces sized for RVs- excellent for what it is. The electrical(20-30-50amp) pedestals are on a common island between every 2 sites so(except for end sites) so you are side door-to-side door with your neighbor. The sites being angled at 45 rather than 90 degrees means this is somewhat mitigated. Very clean, fine for what it is: a place to park your RV while visiting Los Alamos area. Electric worked fine. The Visitor Center is re-opened, so bathrooms are available while it is open(8am-5pm). Everything is relatively new and generally in good condition. Good potable water supply and dump station with non-potable water(this seems to be free and available to the public). There is a Smiths supermarket, restaurants, etc across the street. 

There are a few downsides, the first of which can be very significant: 

1. Sites are not specifically assigned. If a space is vacant, it is available to be taken. There is a vending kiosk near the nice dog park area, from which you buy a ticket good for that day if there is an open space; it is not for a specific site. This is all fine if you have two vehicles and will be leaving one to“hold your place” while you are out exploring the area. BUT, for people with only one vehicle(e.g., class B or C or even A without a toad), you are abandoning your place when you leave to drive anywhere, and it is open to anyone taking it while you are gone. If you return and there is any open space, you can take it, but the RV park is generally full almost every night, and if you return and all spaces are taken, your$20“ticket” is useless- you are out of luck. I guess you could try parking in the adjacent large regular parking area, but that is not sanctioned. I spoke with the County about this, suggesting they consider a way to deal with this. 

2. Sites are all sloping downhill toward the Fire Station, you will very likely need to use blocks if you don’t have a mechanical leveling system. The slope is greater toward the Fire Station. 

3. Several of the sites are blocked off for the Los Alamos National Lab Exhibit Trailers, reducing the actual number of RV spaces available. 

4. Commute hours traffic is horrendous on the road(Road 4) into and out of the park, so plan accordingly. Traffic noise didn't bother us.

We stayed a few nights to explore Los Alamos and the park. It's convenient to have the grocery store within walking distance, and there's a YMCA in Los Alamos where you can purchase shower passes for $5. Nice staff at the visitor center as well.

Before I visited here in December I had not heard of Bandelier NM; it's a wonderful place for exploring outside Santa Fe and Juniper Campground provides rustic sites without hookups (dump station and water available, though the dump station is closed in winter). Because it was December, we could drive into the park; in peak season there are shuttle buses that take you to the visitors center. There are no reservations except for the group sites. You'll need to pay with a credit card at the campground or pay cash at the visitor's center. You'll also need to pay an entrance fee for Bandelier NM unless you have or purchase a National Parks Pass. With a senior or an Access pass, you'll get a 50% discount on the already low fees.

Sites are sunny and open with scrub trees providing an element of privacy between sites. Parking pads have been recently paved. Bearboxes are provided. Bathrooms provide flush toilets, sinks, and hand dryers, but no showers. Although pets are allowed, if you plan to do any hiking, you'll want to leave them home. High elevation, so it's cold in winter and may have snow.

I would stock up on supplies on my way out of Santa Fe (about an hour away) or Albuquerque; or in Los Alamos from the North. There are a number of other national monuments in the area and Santa Fe is a nice small city to explore.

The ranger at Manhattan project site in Los Alamos referred me to this campground as the perfect lunching point to bandelier National monument. The shuttle picks up from the parking lot or I plan to drive in early before 9:00 a.m. with my van to get a parking spot in the park and skip the shuttle. It is literally a parking lot with power pedestals. There's potable water and the dump station away from your site but you can fill up before you park an empty when you're done.

You could also drive through here in Phillip and dump if you weren't planning on staying here. The other option was checkpoint park in Los Alamos where you need to go to the pool to buy a $20 pass for the night with no electricity. So this site was a no-brainer!

I'm here June 10th and there's one other RV here in the site the other three look like permanent residents.

This campsite was efficient, friendly, and had plenty of entertainment available. We walked to the brewery next door and made good use of the dog parks.

This is also known as American Springs Dispersed Camping.  We stayed in site fairly close to the entrance and off to the right on the East spur for 6 days in a 36’ motorhome and Cherokee Trailhawk. All of the sites are very well spaced, most being a hundred to several hundred yards apart. Ours was fairly close to the highway, but it was really only noticeable during"rush hour". Only a few other campers while we were here, and most only stayed a day or two. The interior roads are dirt and get pretty rough the further in you go, with some fairly large rocks and deep ruts, some 1’ to 1.5’ deep(see photos). Parts of the ENE spur gets pretty narrow in spots, but we did a small trailer or two back that far. American Springs road, heading off to the NNE, is in a little better shape, with only 2 or 3 bad sections, similar to those on the East and ENE spurs, until about 1.25 miles in, then it gets very rough and I wouldn’t recommend proceeding with anything other than a true 4x4 or OHV, but there are a number of secluded campsites back in there. There are a number of trails/dirt roads in the immediate area to hike, some with nice views of the valley and surrounding mountains. AT&T coverage was fair, with 2 Bars of LTE service and speeds up to 2 MB/s. There are quite a few trees, but we did manage to get DISH coverage to all three western satellites at our site through a gap between a couple of trees. We were also able to get about 50 OTA channels with our fixed omni antenna.

Regarding access to the area from the East of Los Alamos, be aware GPS will route you through Los Alamos onto NM 501, which goes through part of LANL and you have to go through security check points and your vehicle(s) are subject to search. If you have any firearms, you will not be allowed to go through the lab. So, if you have weapons or don’t want to be searched, the alternative is to take West Jemez Road/NM 4 through White Rock instead and save yourself a trip all the way up to Los Alamos, all the way back down, and then back up to the dispersed area.

Friendly staff, great campground setup. Very accomodating to travelers with dogs as they habe a dog walking path and dog park. The showers at the main house are free and open 24/7 - big and well maintained. The propane station was great too as we do not have a rig with portable bottles. The sites are beautiful with different art sculptures all throughout the campground. Plus it is a gated campground which definitely made our family feeling safe and secure. The sites are full hookup plus wifi which was decently strong. Would definitely recommend this campground!

Due to a major construction project this spring thru fall, "Camp May Road, which will be closed to all traffic Monday through Thursday starting later in April 2025. ... 

Monday through Thursday closures are planned through the end of the calendar year. 

Camping at Camp May will be limited to Friday and Saturday nights on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations will not be available. Campers must extinguish campfires, pack up belongings and leave the area no later than Sunday evening. The entrance/exit to Camp May will be closed and locked after Sunday night."  From the LA County announcement:  

https://www.losalamosnm.us/News-articles/Collaboration-will-improve-regional-fire-protection

Also note, Los Alamos County and Santa Fe National Forest are in Stage I fire restrictions (no campfires) starting May 4, 2025.