Best RV Parks & Resorts near Ocate, NM

Nice park nestled at the foot of the mountains and on the banks of the Red River. Nicely landscaped with two ponds and a river walk. Location is great for visiting Rio Grande del Norte NM and the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. Just north of Taos too. Nicely shaded, level sites with full hookups. Nice picnic table and grill. Might be a little tight for big rigs, but my little Casita was quite happy. Very friendly folks in the office. Clean laundry and restroom. My site backed up to the river and the sound of the rushing water was the perfect lullaby.

I loved my stay here. This location is so prime for visiting all the sights in Taos, and there are many.  The campground is compact but still, private. There are several pull-thru sites for big rigs, many back-in sites with water/elec. hookups, and some tent sites in the back of the campground and a few sites at the front by the office that are back-in without any amenities.

There is a dump station, a dishwashing area, bathrooms with very hot showers, a playground, and office. No open fires are allowed only propane or other contained fires. Cell phone service and wifi thru the campground is available tho not fast when everyone jumps on at the same time. During my stay everyone was very quiet.  My only complaint was a light that stayed on all night for security.

Restaurants are really close enough to walk to and there is an Ace Hardware store across the street for emergency repairs. Old Town Taos is 3 miles away.

This is one of only a few RV parks in the immediate area of the city of Taos. This campground had positive reviews, and the photos looked nice, so we chose it. As other people indicated, the park is clean, and reasonably spacious for a private campground. There were buddy sites so your traveling partners could have coaches facing one another, which is also nice. 

There was ample room to park both our fifth wheel and our truck. The sites we had were concrete and level(we were traveling with others, and their site at a different area of the park was dirt/rock and much less level). There was good Verizon and AT&T cell service in the park as well. 

I don’t use park WiFi, the laundry rooms, or the bathrooms so I cannot comment on that(although people we were traveling with said they were nice). My issue with this park is the way they charge. 

Their website indicates a certain charge for 30 amp sites, 50 amp sites, pull-thrus and back-ins. Also, some had sewer, and some did not. Not until we got there did we discover that although we had paid for a premium spot with 50 amp power and sewer, that the cost of the electricity itself was NOT included in the price. This was not prominently indicated on their website. Their policy/procedure was to take a meter reading each day, and that cost was added to the camper’s bill at the end of their stay. I understand that many campgrounds do this for monthly campers, and even weekly. I have NEVER seen this at a campground on a daily rate. I have been all over the country, staying at private campgrounds from coast to coast, and this was the only one that I have ever seen that charged for electricity on a daily rental. I brought this to their attention, and their attitude was, “that’s the way we do it” and was terse about it. The actual dollar amount was not great, about$2/night...but that was based upon our usage. 

We had people traveling with us that used their air conditioner(we did not) and it was about$5/night. They have every right to do this, but it goes against the industry standard that I have seen everywhere else. So, I am only giving this campground 2 stars because of that. If it weren’t for that, I would give it 4 stars. Take this information and use it how you choose. 

We stayed in a 35’ fifth wheel.

This Forest Service Campground is less than ten miles from the Santa Fe Plaza and is, thus, very popular and very busy. It should be noted that about half of this distance is on a somewhat steep, but very good road. Most of the sites are reservable, and are reserved well in advance, but there are some hard-to-get, first-come sites. The campground is smaller and the sites are fairly close together, but the vegetative undercover gives some visual separation, and, during our stay, it was fairly quiet except for the several generators that often make there presence known during the evenings. Generator hours, if there are any, seem to be very generous. It would certainly be nice to have generator-free zones. The campground has very nice tree cover and, because of the elevation, is cool even during mid summer. The campsites are well laid out with a picnic table and fire ring and well-designed tent sites. There are water spigots throughout but none were able to provide water during our stay. It is unclear whether there will be water available in the future, but, during our stay we had to haul in any water that we needed. There is no dump station in the campground, but next door, at the State Park, there is a dump station open at times, for a charge of$10 per use. The dump station has the gates closed, but can be accessed, after paying the fee at the park, by simply sliding open the latches on the gates. There are vault toilets, but you will want a mask to use them, not because of COVID, but because of the gag-producing odor. You will need a strong stomach to frequent these facilities. This is a real shame in an otherwise nice campground. It is not really that hard to keep toilets like these clean and decent smelling. There are camp hosts, but on a busy Friday night when we arrived, they were no where to be seen and were not much of a presence in the campground. They do provide a greeting of a really trashed-up campsite and a beware of dog sign. This is another indictment of the poor Forest Service management and rather sad since this could be such a very nice campground if well managed. There is no cell service with Verizon in the Campground. There is a nice two-mile loop hike that can be accessed directly from the campground and several other hikes that are available in the State Park next door. In addition, there are several nice hikes nearby in the National Forest. Even with the several criticisms noted above, this is a nice campground and well worth a visit. Just plan well in advance with reservations or get very lucky with a first-come site.

Hamlet went to visit his fun cousins for the weekend -- Diego, Thelma, Louise, Frida, Ralphie, Sunnie, and others– all vintage campers available for rent at this amazingly cool space just outside of Taos, NM. 

It was Thanksgiving weekend, and while many of the campers were fully booked, there was lots of space in the dry camping area just beyond the vintage trailers. There’s lots of room here for dozens of campers, vans and RV’s. There are no trees or shade structures in the dry camping area, just a few randomly placed fire rings. But camping here means you have access to the very clean bathrooms/showers, water, and other services at the "hotel." 

Surprise!  The weather went from day-time highs in the 60’s to blizzard conditions with overnight lows in the teens.  We busted out our Airskirts Insulation to help keep our floor warmer and our heated air inside. 

It’s a great place to base your Taos adventures, hiking near the Rio Grande Gorge, or going further up into the mountains. Nearby activities include fishing, rafting, cycling, mountain biking, and skiing in winter.  Across the road from the campground is the Taos Mesa Brewery where you can get amazing craft beers and some great food. 

It was the perfect place to hang out on a cold, wintery night.

Taos also has all the restaurants and services that you might need, and some of the best southwest eateries you’ll find anywhere. The campground is ideal for solar power, as is the New Mexico weather. We also had no problem connecting with Starlink and had LTE in the campground.  If you love the combination of vintages, views, and brews...check this fun place out!

We stayed one night here in June, 2020. Just wanted to get out of hot Albuquerque and into the mountains for some cooler hiking and cooler air in general. Because of the ongoing pandemic, campgrounds at State Parks were still closed, so the National Forest campgrounds offered the only real option for something close to home. Black Canyon really fit the bill. It took us about 90 minutes to get to our site from our RV storage facility in Albuquerque. It's in the mountains, on the road to the ski area. Not quite as high as the State Park, but still out of the"pinion/juniper" mix you get in the hills of NM and up into Aspen and Pine territory. The sites here have no facilities. There are a couple of vault toilets, which smelled pretty bad when we walked by them. A couple of very primitive looking water areas; no idea if they actually work(I've seen earlier reviews that imply they don't). I never saw anyone using them. And they have non-traditional connects, so if you want to try your luck and get water for your rig here, you'll need a Water Bandit. The campground is well wooded. Campsites come in all shapes and sizes. Our rig is 29 feet, 3 inches, and we were in a spot that maxed out at 32 feet(per description on web site...Site 15). We barely fit. We saw very few sites that could have accommodate much more. I don't think any site would have been able to handle more than 35 feet. Our little Thor Hurricane 27B was the only Class A we saw on site, and the place was pretty packed. Lots of tent camping.(Our pad was narrow enough that back in took more than one try. And there was no space for bringing out the awning. The fire pit area and such were BEHIND the rig.) It was very nice though and in the evening, the temps were fantastic. It was actually chilly enough that my wife had to put on a small wrap while we ate dinner outside.

At the end of the campgrounds is the entrance to the Black Canyon Trail. It's only about 1.3 miles, but for about.4 miles of it, there is considerable steepness. I wouldn't call it a workout, but it's not a totally whimpy trail and it was lovely. We saw lots of plant life and grabbed many nice photos. We went late in the afternoon(around 5:30) and NO ONE else was on the trail. The next morning, we hiked the nearby West Circle Trail on the State Park site, and that's a MUCH tougher trail. You go up 1000' in one mile, and it's an often rocky trail, so careful plodding is recommended. It's a nice trail too! Black Canyon Campground was just what the doctor ordered. Unless, you want/need cell service or wifi. We had read there was no mobile service and they weren't kidding. Over the air TV doesn't come in either, and even radio stations were spotty at best. No problem for us.

(By the way, less than 20 yards from the entrance to the campground, the National Forest ends and the Hyde Memorial State Park begins. And another 50 yards up from there is the State Park RV dump station. Right now, IT IS CLOSED. Don't plan to dump there. In fact, finding a place to dump anywhere in Santa Fe is a tall order.)