Best Equestrian Camping near Magdalena, NM

Every year, we drive from Texas to Apache National Forest. Cibola is halfway. Every year, we make sure to stay the night at Water Canyon. First: the views. Secondly, the amenities. A level spot, with a fire ring, table and maintained vault toilets for $0. The most spacious spots are the first two, after that a six man tent is the largest tent you’ll fit on a level spot. We have never really explored further than our camp site, as our children are small and out number us. But for 12-36 hours, it is a beautiful stay that includes campfires, lizards and the occasional equestrian that lets our kids treat their horses. Treasured memories, unplugged and free.

Park is very nice. Spots are accessible and park is clean. Stables for horses with exercise area. A little bit noisy from interstate but not to bad.

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.

We live in Albuquerque, but wanted to spend a day hiking the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Kiva RV Park is just a 5 minute drive from the NWR, so we stayed there on a Friday night, so we could get up bright and early for our hiking the next day.

The folks running the place were very friendly. Led us to our spot and made sure everything was okay for us. It's a fairly humble place...gravel roads and parking spots. No concrete to be seen. Each slot has a fairly wide planted area, but this is not patches of green lawn. They have mature native trees and shrubs that are well maintained. Plenty of big cottonwood trees provided shade. The place is clearly run on a low budget, but is well maintained and there is pride in the work here. When we visited, it appeared to be nearly full, and it felt like perhaps 50/50 mix between long-term residents and overnight(or nearly overnight) visitors. There is a large corral area for horses. We walked over to it but there were no horses there. There's a little dog park, a bathhouse and laundry. We didn't use any of those amenities, so I can't comment. I believe the laundry is listed as free.(This is not the case with the wifi, which was complex and had a fee.) I just used my hotspot from my Verizon service and because we had 4 bars, that worked just fine for streaming some Netflix that night.

We really like the place. Lots of neighbors, but everyone was very friendly, and no late partying. A few kids. But really, it was all very pastoral and nice. We'd stay here again. 

Not all was perfect. Aside from the less-than-friendly wifi: 1) The sewer hookup is just an open pipe. No threads. A little stinky when you take the cover off.  2) It is almost literally right next to the interstate. There's no denying those traffic noise is real. We slept with no issues, but if traffic noise doesn't act like white noise for you...you might want to look somewhere else. We're lucky; but I know this is a deal-breaker for some.

They do offer a Good Sam discount of 10%, so with tax, we paid $34. Well worth it. Very nice stay.

Piles of sand around picnic tables. All sites listed on reservation.gov as FF for $10 night but no means by which to pay there or at campground.

Have to agree with an earlier review of this site--the place is great, everything you'd want in a campground, but we encountered some strange visitors as well. We almost didn't stay because of the seemingly sketchy activity going on here, but it ended up being alright, and the campground itself is great. Nice area, picnic tables, firepits, vault toilets, trash and best of all, free.

We were climbing in the Socorro area for a few days and this site is about 20 minutes further down the road from the climbing area and about 30-35 minutes from Socorro. We stayed our first night here, and the next couple nights we just camped out at the climbing area, which proved much more pleasant (and equally free).

Campground itself was closed due to the Covid-19 stuff going on. Decided to drive into the mountains more instead of turning right into the campground, and didn’t regret it. Took us out to copper trail 10 and there were 4-5 sites with fire rings already there. Beautiful area in the valley, and old copper mines all around.

We loved this place. Attempted at first to camp at The Box down the road but it was really crowded so we came here and what a great choice! 

This is a FREE campground but plans are in the works to started charging in 2 years at $10/night. There are gravel tent and parking pads, picnic tables, fire rings, pit toilets and garbage.

When you first pull in there is a narrow opening to a rocky dirt road straight ahead and to the left is a day use picnic area. The sign at the beginning of the dirt road said trailers not advisable but one came down before we started up so we went for it. We have a 26 foot class C. Dirt road driving experience necessary. The road is quite narrow, rocky and has a couple washouts and tight turns but not impossible to navigate....use your best judgement! 

There were only a couple of other campers and the views are very nice. Some sites are close together however. There are pit toilets and garbage at the beginning of the campground and at the end loop. 

Great hiking area too! Further down the road where it says "no turn around" is a group site but the gate is locked and you'll need to contact National Forest Service if you want to use this area. 

There is no drinking water or cell reception from AT&T or Verizon. Pets allowed on a leash. Also there are free roaming cattle we saw on the main road in but none in the campground though there was poop evidence that they've been around. 

Along the dirt road hiking trails near the campground people have made other camping areas with rock fire pits. The roads to these areas are narrow and 4WD necessary.

Campsites are well-developed and maintained. The facilities were clean and stocked with tp. Was only half-full on weekend. Many beautiful trails and forest roads nearby.

Beautiful views, established campsite, bathrooms, amazing stars at night. Highly recommend!

Nice basic campground, several vault toilets that are clean.  Road access is pretty rough and it is easy to miss the campground turnoff!  We missed it the first time.  The campground is up a hill on a side road across from the Water Canyon Campground sign.  Sites are pretty basic, not all area level but they do have tables and fire pits.  I wouldn't take a camping trailer up that road, it is very bumpy.  

We only stayed for a day but it was quiet.  Lots of hiking trails there which is the only reason we would return.

Bathrooms but no showers. No water. Great campground. Beautiful view of rock faces across the canyon

There are campsites available but not for big rigs. We have a 40 foot toy hauler and the dirt roads and narrowness would not allow for us. If you have something maybe 18’ or less and 4wd you could probably make it fine. We stayed right at the entrance near the picnic area. Spoke with fire inspector from the forest service and he said it was fine. The location was decent. Pretty quiet except for early morning vehicles driving up the road to the observatory and lab? We didn’t make the drive up as we have a dually and the road is pretty narrow.

Nice place for an overnight stay. Owner is nice, laundry, showers & restrooms. Close to highway, which you hear, but nice stop for just an overnight. Takes Good Sam & Passport.