Best Glamping near Navajo Dam, NM

Vallecito Resort in beautiful Bayfield CO. We stayed here 3 days. This park is quite beautiful and well maintained. Staff is super friendly and helpful. There are a lot of seasonal residents here but all seem very friendly. We even joined them for a Christmas in July evening of decorating a tree, desserts and listen to Christmas music. Had a nice size spot #56. Very quite at night. Great location for day trips as we visited three near buy lakes, and Mesa Verda National park (used your America The Beautiful pass for free entrance). I would love to stay here longer and visit more locations but was only able to get three days. Cell service sucks with Verizon up here and WiFi available near office area only.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Friendly staff; shuffled our stay around so we could extend and not relocate during the week. 

WIFI/ CELL SERVICE: Camp wifi and speed seemed to work really well! I could use email and stream videos with no delay; however we used a hot spot for work calls to be more clear, but their wifi probably could have been fine to do so. 2 of 4 bars AT&T but calls came in fine throughout the entire park. 

SITE: Pretty campground layout. Love the"S" curved pull thru sites. We had an"S" shaped site with nice privacy and ease of arriving and leaving because of design. The sites all seemed to be nicely spaced from one another and private even though you are nearby. There were some views and there were a few pretty fall trees and a vacant pasture to look at while sitting at the picnic table. A small creek flows along the edge of site 23. Full hookup; level site; heated water so didn't have to worry about pipes freezing during stay; fire pit; grill; full sun site; rock roads but well maintained and not too dusty; light road noise. I'm sure the sites closer to the highway are louder near the campground entrance; no bugs in October that we experienced. 

OTHER: Nearby Walmart and shopping center. About 20 min drive from Historic Downtown; about 5 minutes from Anytime Fitness gym. Laundry room was small and they didn't clean our clothes very well, but it was kept clean.

This was the first stop of 3 - 2 night stays on this search to find great camping with easy access to water and preferably within a days drive of my house. I recreational kayak so access to water is at the top of my list of must haves if paddling is on the list of must do’s. This was a survey trip to see what’s out there for folks like me.

I booked two nights going to quite a bit of trouble of obtain them. I booked all three stays on the same day in March. Two weeks before my trip I receive an email from the Parks department cancelling my reservation, issuing a refund but offering no explanation or offer to assist in finding another spot. Getting to speak to an actual person… could not be done. I left voice mails at the dam, at the. State office and even the Governor’s office but apparently no one was at work. Two weeks later a really helpful gal called to say she had just started two days prior and discovered a full voice mail box. She was absolutely amazing at facilitating a solution within two days. Clarissa, you are a Goddess! Reserve America is a pain to navigate and I will leave it at that.

Now about the campground. It is exactly what one should expect in a desert landscape. Very few trees and very dusty and rocky. It was 100 degrees when I left for my trip deciding to wait until late afternoon to avoid setting up in the blazing heat. I arrived at 10:00pm or so. It was 73 degrees. I came in from the east side 64 to 527 and there were deer and elk EVERYWHERE!!!! Which is why I arrived so late, you just have to slow down. Mostly cedar and pine and natural gas oil wells EVERYWHERE!!!! I got to my appointed site and I simply could not navigate from where one parks to where the actual site was and which, by the way, while lakeside it was convenient to water it was not. If you have a few people to help haul everything down to where the actual water is great, but alone in 100 degrees. Also, I travel with two small dogs and shade is paramount. Well shade they do have such as it is. The showers were not available due to, you guessed, a water shortage! I just put up the tent and went to sleep which wasn’t too uncomfortable. Next morning at 5:30 the sun was out and the heat was building. I packed up and moved on up to Colorado where it would surely be much cooler.

I might like to visit Sims Mesa Marina at Navajo Lake again, if it ever fills again and perhaps in the spring or fall but NOT in summer. So many of our fine bodies of water boaters and anglers have come to rely on for recreation are in serious jeopardy due to a 10 year what is termed “Exceptional” drought conditions. It’s really such a shame.

Side note: be sure to take the Navajo Dam shortcut when leaving Sims. It’s a well maintained, but very dusty road. The views are spectacular and driving across the dam is a bit nerve racking. The drive down from the dam all along the San Juan drainage below the dam is well worth checking out for day use only but there are several “holes” they call them where the fishing is said to be amazing and the parking lot reflected it’s popularity.

So it’s on to Vallecito Lake outside Bayfield, Colorado. Specifically Pine Point USFS Campground. The search for paddling opportunities continues.

We grow tired on boondocking and enjoy a nice RV Park sometimes. This RV Park is nicely designed to give you privacy from your neighbors with bushes and trees planted between sites. No grass at the sites, but lots of grass all around. The laundry is located beside the pool - you can swim while waiting for our laundry. However, there is no way to drive to the laundry door; it’s quite a walk carrying your clothes. There are picnic tables and small grills at each site. There’s a small dog park; and, of course the casino nearby for entertainment and dinner out. All sites are asphalt with concrete pads for the tables. The sites are level

Pros

The campground was relatively small so nothing was too far away. Laundry facilities were nice. Lots of showers that were private stalls. Lots of activities to do. The staff was very friendly and professional. Very clean- they even scrub the heck out of the bbq grills even when they have to stand in the heat of the day doing it. Delicious pizza.

Cons

It was close to a highway- BUT it was pretty well set back so it didn't feel unsafe by any means, but there was a lot of traffic noise. Sites are packed pretty tightly and many of the tent sites are not private in the least. We got lucky and got one set back with the cabins. The pool is pretty small, but it was clean and the kids had a great time.