Best Equestrian Camping near Mesilla, NM

It really is beautiful here. Southeast New Mexico has mountains believe it or not. The camp is nestled up against one. It’s Memorial Day weekend and not too crowded. Highly recommend for the price (basically free). If you are tent camping and low maintenance this place rocks. If you have a huge rig I’m not even sure I would want to make the drive up the road to the camp site. Spots are small, so you would need to find the best spot if you have an RV or Trailer.

Stayed in #43. Most sites are uneven and short. BLM recommends nothing more than 23' long. Water available at host site near gate before driving about 4 or 5 mi to campsites. Road IS narrow and winding and steep in place but pave and ONE way (don't turn wrong direction). Toilets were clean and mens toilets all had soft-close lids. I am told womens do not. Campground was clean, great 4 mile loop hike, and other much more strenuous/technical options for mountain climbers. Mountain crags remind me of a mix of Tetons, Patagonia and Sawtooth in Idaho. Great views to Sacramento Mountains to the east (Ruidoso/Cloudcroft area--Sierra Blanca covered in snow early Nov.). White Sands nearby along with White Sands Missile Range Museum).  Met some BLM peeps who were very nice, helpful and provided great information re: geology of the area and other points of interest. We brought our own 5 gal of water and were fine for 3 nights.

ALSO: shout out to New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors who were doing trail rehab./maintenance work while we were in area, yay!

I've been on a nationwide roadtrip for a few months that now and I have tent camped alone in many sites from Florida to Arkansas to, now, New Mexico. I chose Aguirra because of its close proximity to White Sands National Park. It is a First Come First Serve site and you must pay in cash. I was lucky to find a site in the afternoon. There are many sites. Over 40. I lucked out with 43 because it is huge! It's a jilly Rocky site with no one around me and several stone fire pits, a BBQ grill, and animal proof garbage can. There are Porta John's in close proximity. I have not found any water yet. Not sure. No RV hookups. But what do you expect for 7 bucks a night. I was here over Easter weekend so it got noisy with Fiesta music and someone throwing up across from my site at midnight! Whole families come here, jam their music etc. It's Easter so whatever. There is a covered picnic table and lots of tree cover to deal with the intense NM sun. I love how this place is at the end of an ascending, remote, windy road though. It's large enough that no rangers come and bug you for trivialities.

If you do one thing in New Mexico--and it would be a shame if you only did one thing, but I digress--full moon camping at White Sands National Monument might be it. As the sun sets on the Sacramento Mountains, the valley is lit orange and red as the dunes fade from white through amazing hues of tan. The full moon then lights the sand bright white and the Organ Mountains to the west loom as black teeth in the west. Sunrise repeats the process.

Camping at White Sands takes a small amount of planning, but is well worth it. You must claim a spot the of your arrival and pay a small fee. This is done at the visitor's center which has a great museum. My advise is to get there early to get a spot then head up to Cloudcroft to the east for a cooler hike in the pines then return an hour or two before sunset.

Once at the trailhead, the camp sites are 1/4 to 1/2 mile of hiking away. This is sand hiking, so plan on a slower pace. The trail is a lollipop marked by posts every couple hundred yards with camp sites in the valleys between camp sites. No campfires are allowed, and you must camp by the post with your campsite number. You must bring all of your water (plan on at least one gallon per person per day) and pack out all of your waste. The trailhead has dumpsters and pit toilets.

Bring a camera and tripod for amazing moon shots and a decent bag because it can get cold at night.

So the road in is at the 151 Mesquite Exit off IH 10. First 2 miles were blacktop, then 2 miles of 2.5 vehicle wide gravel road then 2 miles of single vehicle gravel road. Several turnouts for camp sites with many having rock fire rings.

Lots of dove and some quail. 

A few cows in the area.

Lots to see if you get out and walk the area. Several hiking trails into the Mountain range.

Light noise to the south from El Paso/IH 10 to the West but not much to the East looking into the canyon or North. Saw many stars and satellites.

Would stay again.

Light traffic during sunlight by hikers.

Quite otherwise.

Sites are not level so be prepared

Pretty good about 4 spots to pull off maybe more if you have a higher clearance vehicle and can make it back in farther my Camry couldn’t lol but still a nice place to stay a couple days good view of the mountains and the sunsets!

Lots of side by sides rip ridin around

Always stay here on my way back to Texas or heading farther west. A few solid campsites on mossman road; roads are a little rough closer to the campsite but nothing crazy, should be good for a 2wd. Never see anyone here, besides a ranger this time. Good spot under open sky.

There are many places along this road (road B059 per Google maps) to pull over and stay the night. Road in is rocky and rutted in places; we made it in our 26ft Class C but a higher clearance vehicle would have made for a much less stressful drive in.  It was extremely windy when we stayed here, and boom / explosion sounds all night made for an uneasy night, especially for our dogs.  We are assuming the sounds came from testing and / or training at the nearby Doña Ana range, but they sounded like chemical plant explosions.  Boom sounds started the evening we stayed there and are still going on as I write this review the next day.   Good verizon and ATT reception.   Spring time in this area should be beautiful with wildflowers.  I don't think we'll come back to see them though.

Drove in at 8pm in dark. First couple miles paved then ~3 miles to camping top. Many places to camp along way up. One other pop up VE camper near top, but I stayed far away. Saw a vehicle with 4-wheel ATV trailer on way out at 7am.

No traffic all night in camping area. Could hear the dull roar of freeway to the west. (White noise).

Good T-mobile reception. Watched end of Chiefs-Rams football game on iPhone. Go Chiefs! Won in overtime.

47 degrees dropped to 39 by morning.

Nice that this spot is not far off the I-10. Can work in Las Cruces Starbucks today and then move on to the Gila NF tonight.

My bus was squeaking, twisting, driving at an angle, and it was a brutal drive... While I'll not come back because it's not well maintained, it does have very beautiful vistas, so that's why it got 3 stars.

Lots of dispersed sites but looks like a very popular area we passed over 20 campers before finding a spot. Spots are pretty well spaced out with lots of vegetation inbetween. Road is a little rough 4x4 definitely recommended.

Road and camp site were good

Bring your own wood

Go to this campsite. $7 is a steal compared to all the BS in other campsites. Beautiful views and great atmosphere. Facilities are normal for a primitive camp site and there are no RVs which is nice if you’re tired of generators or slow driving. Can have FIRE, there is shade and there are trash cans. Would recommend.

There’s plenty of campsites for vehicles to pull up to. The hike has some good elevation gain so don’t expect a flat hike. Rewards you with great views half the time and shade the other half the time. The halfway point on the hike has hella shade for grillin n chillin.

THIS IS NOT A FREE BLM site. It's only a campground that's $7 for overnight or $5 day pass. If you can figure out the map to this place, figure out what site you want to head to, otherwise you'd be like us and ended up near the exit, we decided to head to another place that's free.

Sites are a bit small and tight. It seems more for cars than RVs. I like that there's bathrooms and covered picnic tables. Not many level gravel sites.

Also, on the way near the site there's a sign saying drinking water to a right side pull over where I didn't see any spigot, just a gate that says employee only.

The camp host was fantastic. I got here after hours (not knowing that they lock the gates at 9 pm) and she let me in and gave me a space to crash. I was only there for a few hours and it was easy to get in and out without waking everyone else up.

I had a short stay (one night) but the views were awesome. At night I could see so many stars, and in the morning I could see all the way across the Tularosa Basin to Lincoln National Forest, probably 80 miles away! The sunrise was awesome! I could easily see White Sands National Monument in the distance.

The desert was pretty hot and I was wishing I'd set up camp near Cloudcroft. After passing white sands I saw the sign and thought, "check it out". Glad I did. Nice windy road climbs up to a great campground with plenty of trees and views of the peaks above and desert below. There is no water in the CG, but its available at the entrance, so take a gallon or two in with you.
I stayed on a Saturday night and it was loud. Kids and dogs.

Spent an August Saturday night at the campground. Drive-in, pit toilets (pretty clean) and ~50 sites. Low light pollution and amazing views of the Organ Mountains. Organ Needle, Rabbit Ears, Sugarloaf, and Baylor peaks are all visible from the campgrounds. Would have been perfect except for neighboring campers that were making noise until midnight.

Amazing place. Wicked hike right at the campsite. 6 stars

Loved this spot! Campsites were a little closer than ideal, but still gave us privacy. Vault toilets were fairly clean, no running water available. Nice concrete pad with picnic table and shade, and plenty of hiking around the area! Definitely take the time to hike to the old Boyd’s Sanatorium nearby! Plenty of interesting history to learn.