Best Glamping near Raton, NM

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.

The Raton KOA is conveniently located off I-25 in Raton, NM. The campground offers of a mixture of back-in and pull through sites that are a mix of mostly live gravel and dirt. Most sites have 20/30 amp service, water, and septic hookups, although less expensive sites with fewer amenities are also available.

The campground offers a fenced in dog park where the pups can run off leash. There is also a nice grassy walking path around the perimeter of the property with trash cans and dog waste stations positioned every 100 yards.

The campground owner, Grant, is great to work with. He helped us get setup with the park WiFi and was super responsive to any questions we had. Don’t forget to ask him for the WiFi access code when you check in!

It was hot and I was probably a little cranky when we arrived here but state parks, in general, are charging more and more and for $38 (including the required $10 Colorado State Parks day use fee), I believe we did not get much value for our money at this campground. Access to the campground is down a long, bumpy washboard dirt road. 

The South Shore Campground has ten non-electric sites within supposed walking distance of the lake, although we did not go to the lake. Sites 101-104 and 107-109 are wide gravel driveways and 105, 106, and 110 are pull-throughs. Although sites are decent in size, there is no physical separation between them.

There were only vault toilets (which were clean) and no showers (I had really been hoping for a shower!). 

Each site has a bbq grill, fire pit, and covered picnic table. However, it was so windy when we were there and because of the direction the wind was blowing, the cover was useless, we had to use our van as a wind block to cook dinner, and eat inside the van. 

One of the rules was only 3.4% alcohol allowed. Fishing appeared to be popular here and there is a path along the dam, but it is a far distance from the campground. 

State parks used to be our go-to option, but we are finding we are using them less and less often as the prices continue to increase.

Cimarron Canton State Park is a wonderful place to stay, right on the Cimarron River. Bring your fishing gear and license for some relaxing fishing. Some of the sites are immediately adjacent to the river. My favorite campground is Tolby, the Westernmost. It has a Ranger/Information Station in the east end of the campground. It has flush toilets and sinks, but no shower. This is my favorite, because I love to hike and backpack. Just south across Highway 64 from the campground entrance is the Tolby Trailhead. The Tolby Trail takes you all the way back to Tolby Meadow on an excellent trail. A good spot for overnight tent camping. Tolby campground is also just minutes from Eagle Nest, NM and within easy range of Angel Fire, Red River, and a little less than an hour from Taos.

There are two other campgrounds for RVs, Maverick and Ponderosa, as well as one more for tent camping. Maverick sits right next to a pair of gravel pit lakes for added Fishing opportunities. Ponderosa is across the street from that, but is more like a parking lot with painted camping slots around its perimeter.

In the town of Cimarron I recommend dining at the Historic St. James hotel (very haunted) or lunch at the Creemee. Stop in at the headquarters of Philmont Scout Ranch for the National Scounting Museum and a Tour of the Villa Philimonte (Waite Phillips’ mansion). Also recommended is the Tooth of Time Traders at Philmont. It’s a camping/hiking store that is like an REI.

If you’re coming via Raton, the Colfax Tavern between Raton and Cimarron at Cold Beer New Mexico is a great place to stop for food and drinks.

We traveling through Northern New Mexico on our way back to Austin. The campsite was a bit of a disappointment after so many get camps in Colorado. Cimarron Canyon is still recovering from a major wildfire with large sections of the pine forest destroyed. As you travel up the canyon the damage is less so in the State Park. The highlight here is the trout stream that runs through the camp. We stayed at Tolby Campground. The park headquarters and park rangers are based here. So it’s resource for those looking to information or assistance. The campsite has a nice day use area with lots of parking excellent restrooms with for ADA. The camp host was very personable and welcomed each of the guests as they came in throughout the day. You had a mix of families and retirees at the camp enjoying the summer retreat. They firewood for sale as well. Our big grip was the lack of privacy and the size of the sites and campground itself. The sites are right next too each other and many of the huge 5th wheel RVs were running generators all day and night while others were lighting fires in the rain and smoking out the campground. It’s only $10 per night to camp here. So it may be an option for those looking to do some fishing and perhaps visiting in the week when the site isn’t completely full. The road is also very close and trucks can be heard all day long. I can’t recommend this place based on our experience, the condition of the sites,and the location.