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Elevation of this campground is__5,760 feet and offers__6 camping units.
Ranger
Capulin RV Park is a pretty nice private RV park across the highway from the Capulin Volcano National Monument entrance road. We stayed one night. Some of the sites are shady. The park streets and sites are crushed limestone. The park was clean and quiet. The sites are very close together; fortunately, it was not full and we had room. Restrooms and showers were clean (did not use shower). Amenities include: common fire ring with seating and view of volcano, swing with view of volcano.
Stayed in pull-thru campsite #25 which had evening shade and level. It was a crushed limestone site. There was barely enough parking for my 34 ft TT. Neighbors are VERY close. Utilities: 20/30/50A electric in middle of site. Water in middle of site, good pressure. Sewer in middle of site with 4-in screw-on fitting.
AT&T had two bars of LTE service. AT&T Speedtest: 36.6 Mbps down, 7.5 Mbps up. Free WiFi is available, but did not use it.
The town of Capulin, NM is very small. The closest restaurant is The Sierra Grande Restaurant in Des Moines, NM, which is open year round for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other restaurants and fast food are available in Raton and Clayton.
Would stay here again.
TravelerThe couple running the park are very nice. Bathrooms are clean. The water is off for the winter season but they do have water to fill your tanks if you wish. It was $50 for our site for the night.
Ranger
Nice views of the lake and rocks from Bell Point campground. We stayed in site B19 and it was easy to back in to with our 20' camper. Electric was appreciated, but water was unavailable due to repairs, the dump station and showers were closed - making our stay shorter than expected. There were porta-potties available at the restrooms. The only place around to get water is in the town of Tecumcari, atleast a 30 min drive. If we're in the area and the water gets turned back on, we'd visit again. ATT signal is good and Starlink worked great here, no interruptions in school, work, streaming or gaming. Loved the views, did a bit of hiking around the lake area, saw a boat or two on the lake every now and then. We saw a roadrunner near our site which was really neat
Traveler
Rugged beautiful area. Trail to drive down not bad. Can camp by the river. We didn’t end up staying here due to the fact that we had kids and a dog. The area even at campsites have the grass and bushes right up to it. We were concerned about snakes.
ScoutA friend told us about this place, being from California we decided to give it a try. Complete disaster, the road down was so rough we lost our muffler on a new truck, campsite was primitive but ok. What our, now former, friend declined to tell us is that this is a re-location area for bears that wander into the towns of Taos, Red River, Angel Fire etc. First night so many bears came into our camp I thought we were in a bath house in San Francisco, tore up our “ bear proof” cooler and shit everywhere from eating the jalapeños we had among other things in the cooler. Next morning hike went great till we returned to a destroyed truck from another bear, so destroyed we could’nt start it and had to hike out of the canyon for phone service. Six hours later and an $900 towing bill we finally arrived in Cimmaron, NM. Tow truck driver says he hauls about three cars a year out of the Canyon due to bears and meth heads trying to hot wire vehicles and screwing up the ignition. STAY CLEAR OF THIS PLACE.
ScoutOn 10/04/2021 the road gate was closed. I do not know why.
GuideWe stayed here primarily because it was on our route to Northern New Mexico and Colorado. It was exactly as we expected and we enjoyed an overnight here in June. Fortunately we had electric power for AC and were comfortable. Enjoyed some short hikes right from our campsite. Very isolated location between Tucumcari and Las Vegas, New Mexico, but that was our intended route. Marginal highway, but almost no traffic.
Scout
We were happy with the primitive campsites available. Plenty of wildlife to see around the area and a very quiet place to set up camp.
ScoutNot really RV accessible, the drive down the canyon is pretty sketch in a couple of spots if driving a big vehicle or even a vehicle with a trailer. Beautiful, though. Summers can be hot, so be careful.
TravelerThe area is nice, for desert lakes. There are trees and more opportunities for shade in the North and Bell point campgrounds. Cove campground is quite bare but almost every site has some kind of shade structure. We've stayed at both the "primitive" and established campsites with a 24' trailer. Its hot during the summer with storms that roll in almost every afternoon from June and start slowing down in August. Don't have anything that catches the wind up when they come. The lake is nice clear and warm. Great for bass and walleye. The weekends usually have a lot of people that disappear during the week. On the weekends the lake is full of fishermen and boaters and kayaks. The people in speedboats like to go by the kayakers and fishing boats as close and fast as they can to be big jerks in so little words, but thats just NM people in general. Anyways I will be coming back again.
TravelerJust a 1 night stay but will return. It has just about everything you need to enjoy a longer stay. Great sites and many are pull through.
GuideMills Canyon was an absolutely beautiful campground. I had the place to myself, but that’s because it was too hot for most sane people to stay longer than a few hours. There was one car that drove through to use the bathrooms, but I had the entire campground to myself. It was incredibly hot, so my advice for anybody who is coming to this area during the summer months is to bring way more water than what you think you need, and some type of canopy for shade. I only stayed one night as it never cooled down and the biting insects were terrible. All that said, I will return in the cooler months. No cell service. The road down into the canyon was fine with a few legit ruts but easy to navigate.
GuideThis is an amazing RV Park! The spaces are huge! We are on an end and I think ours is about a quarter acre in size! Really!There are lots of trees around and natural grass growing. There aren’t any shooting competitions going on at the time, so we don’t hear much shooting. There are only about 8 RVs in this 49 space RV area, but I imagine when they have an event going on, the RV Park is much fuller and you would probably hear more gun fire. The views are beautiful!
There is a free museum and a small laundry - 2 washers, 2 dryers.
We are strong believers in our Second Amendment and appreciate the NRA providing this center to teach people the proper handling and use of guns.
GuideWe actually stayed off of FSR k87B. Here the campsites can get real close to the edge of the canyon. Super primitive, but amazing views. A little to hot this June.
GuideThis place was off the beaten path, but we'll worth it. Beautiful canyon and open space. We will be coming back for sure.
GuideWe spent two nights and it only cost us $16. We were parked right on the lake, and being right after a holiday the lake was pretty much empty. They have several different campsites, with a website that makes it easy to reserve a spot. However, we called to ask, and ranger let us know we could come for first come first serve. They have signs that make finding your way around easy, also having stations that you can pay(cash only) for your campsite. The rangers were sweet and helpful as well as having a host, who was there all night in case of an emergencies. The restrooms/showers were clean and it looked to be recently remodeled. Also they had ramps going into the water for boats and a dock for fishing. Something else we learned about New Mexico, not being from here, April-May is a rainy and windy season. So be sure to check the weather before heading out
GuideWe stayed at bell point campground and although it’s still a Rocky hike to the beach the views are breathtaking. Camp was quiet enough (depends on your neighbors). Deer cover the campground. Each camp site has a covered wind break area for eating lunch. No ATVs. Kids loved it and so did dogs. Friendly staff - the rangers gave the kiddos a coloring book and badge when we got here. All the sites are nice that I can tell but not all have water views
GuideFirst time camping in this part of the state. Great campsites in the canyon. Very clean toilets. No campfires were allowed but still had a great time No luck fishing
ScoutI read about this camp ground and its owners. I was so taken that I changed my plans and rout from Florida to Alaska just to stay here. I was not disappointed I stayed coming and going to and from Alaska. If I get to travel again I will go out of my way to stay here.
ScoutI give this campground 2 stars - one because it is a lovely spot and two, because it is well-maintained considering its remoteness. The other 2-3 stars it may well have deserved were blacked out by the sheer numbers of outright rude and inconsiderate campers.
The drive into the canyon is, indeed, bumpy but doable in a high-clearance car or SUV. There is no cell service. The campground is near the river but does not have river access - it is possible to get to it but the stickers make it extremely uncomfortable, especially if your bring your pooches. There are some places to walk and see both the ruins of the Mills orchard homestead, as well as access the river, but walking was made very unpleasant by the numbers of trucks, ATVs, and motorcycles zooming by - very loud and lots of dirt in the eyes and mouth.
Not sure if it's the "COVID camping" phenomena but the campground was full to near-full the 3 days, 2 nights we camped there. During that time there were multiple very large groups (10-16 people) of people pulling in and out. One group from Texas brought along very loud 50cc motorcycles and large ATV/Side by sides for their kids, who would make rounds around the campground loop, sending plumes of fine dirt into all of the campgrounds around the loop, not to mention the noise. Another large group of trucks from Texas pulled into the campsite next to ours and literally drove 6 vehicles into the actual camping spot and proceeded to then set up tents all the way into my spot -- loud music, loud talking, loud wood chopping, 4:30 am trucks in and out (I suppose they were driving to the bathroom, which was about a 2 minute walk away). I was forced to sleep in my car, instead of my tent thanks to the noise and the fact that I was not comfortable sleeping with a bunch of strangers who didn't seem to care that I had already set up there. As I packed up the next day and was checking my campground for trash I noticed theirs was strewn with it - I considered cleaning it until I noticed it was mostly used toilet paper.
Camping in New Mexico is amazing and one of the reasons I live here. I don't understand why people need to come to the middle of nowhere to be obnoxious, ruin the experience for everyone else, and trash the place in the process.
Until the COVID camping phenomena ends, expect the worst.
GuideClean, friendly, and with all services for $35 a night. We stayed here on route between Texas and Colorado - close to the volcano national park so popped in there too. This is a crushed rock lot with pull through sites - nothing scenic here.
ScoutLoved this place and how in the middle of no where it is. Very clean, basic, and thoroughly wild. We too had the mosquito swarms but it was early summer so a lot of runoff. I’d go back in a second.
ScoutGreat place to camp. Hard to access in car. Recommend high clearance truck, 4-wheel drive, or similar.
Contrary to current listing, there is NO POTABLE WATER and NO FIREWOOD in this campground.
There are some historical ruins here that are described on plaques.
TravelerThere is no view of the canyon from this campground, so be prepared to hike or drive down if you want to have great views. The real downer for us was the plethora of vicious mosquitos. We were eaten alive even though we sprayed with bug spray often. Our tent was swarmed with them such that we heard them buzzing our tent all night. We tried multiple sites and couldn’t find a bug free spot. They seemed to be sheltering under trees and in the grass and there was only one spot of water where they may have been breeding. It had rained recently, which may have been the problem, so consider trying this campsite at a dry time of year. We probably won’t bother trying to come back.
The good: Free Nice cement picnic tables Clean vault toilets Quality covered horse stalls which we used for shelter Dark sky area of the State so some of our party got a great view of Neowise
Notes: No water or cell service Not every site has picnic tables and fire pits No gas in the general area so fuel up before you get there.
GuideA beautiful little campground of solitude was found if you drove on just past the Mills Canyon Campground. Not very much available in terms of hiking, but what there was went along the Canadian River, and yielded some interesting, crumbled old structures. Definitely take the time to read a little bit of the history once you have a signal again! Campfires weren’t allowed while we were there, but they are allowed when the fire danger isn’t so high. There are vault toilets (which were well maintained), but no running water. There is no cell service. Bring trash bags, as there are no trash cans or dumpsters. No bear lockers, though there are bears in the area. Recommend 4 wheel drive to access the Canyon itself. Many of the primitive roads have been closed to motorized vehicles, but still make for a nice hike! We could hear owls every night, and saw a mountain lion one morning.
ScoutClosest camping to Capulin Volcano National Monument. Friendly folks. Tent area just a field across the street.
GuideFree, pack-in pack-out site with vault toilets, picnic tables and fire pits. The Rim campground is perfectly nice, but if you can manage it roll on down the rocky, rough dirt road to the canyon campsite. We wanted to stay at the bottom, but decided not to risk getting stuck down there given that snow was coming in overnight (my 2wd is not snow-proficient, especially on steep roads).
Seemed to be mostly other climbers at the site, and lots of dog-friends. Really beautiful, quiet place, though beware you likely won't have cell service at the camp or anywhere near (including in the town of Roy).
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular glamping campsite near Mills, NM?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular glamping campground near Mills, NM is Mills Canyon Campground with a 4.1-star rating from 19 reviews.
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TheDyrt.com has all 4 glamping camping locations near Mills, NM, with real photos and reviews from campers.
