Best Tent Camping near Red River, NM

This place seems like more of a day use area that has some fire rings and picnic tables. As best we could tell, there weren't any great tent camp sites, so we just pulled up onto a ridge and dragged a table up. Perhaps better for campers & small RV's.

That said, the lake is gorgeous and there's a great hike up the riverbed.

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.

The scenery was beautiful, but very windy at times. Also the person that stayed before me left a lot of trash in the fire pit, so we cleaned that up before the campfire. It’s also loud with the 18 wheelers driving down the main road. If you’re camping in a van or camper shell, it’s probably not a big deal. If you roof top tent camp or regular tent camping, it gets loud.

One of the most beautiful campsites I seen. Two nights tent camping in the valley where two rivers meet. No showers but restrooms were adequate.

Great fishing opportunities, and wonderful hiking all around. Close by to two towns where you can pick up provisions. Campgrounds are great for tent camping, with many right by the river. Even though some sites are close to the road, the traffic is light so we didn’t notice.

Had a great experience here, stayed 3 nights tent camping with my dog. Bathrooms with showers, laundry room, store, and coffee/tea available in the office. The whole property has a friendly/family culture and the couple who manages the campground is very personable and knowledgeable about the area. Will be back!

Awesome 4 tent campsites tucked away at end of parking lot. A short jaunt from vehicle to campsites so does require carrying your gear. Pretty neat. Highly recommend.

This place is cool. Its made up of about 15 1960-70's trailers, all updated and stylish, on the wide open Taos Mess. There's also tent camping available for $10 a night. Showers (indoor and outdoor) and bathrooms are all really nice and clean. The owners and employees are all a joy. 15 minutes to downtown Taos. There is a brewery right across the street with live music and an awesome patio.

This place is so cool. There is a “hotel” made up of old airstreams and other RVs, a solid brewery and a music venue that brings pretty serious acts in.

We paid $10 to park our van essentially. Parked in the gravel lot, had acces to showers and bathrooms. There was also tent camping for $10 a night as wel and that looked really legit with unobstructed views .

10/10 will 100% go back to this spot and support what they are doing

Tent camped in July and could not get into the water; but did freeze my ankles off. Have nice latrine commode and that is all. There are no specific sites. Just find a place and set up. Longest stay is 2 weeks. 

Photographer had a pop-up trailer, solar cells, (trees everywhere). He said 2X per week he would get a shower in town somewhere.

There is sufficient room for 10-15 families. Remove all trash when leaving.

Obviously, camp in warm weather or you need to have a snow plow since drifts 3-5 ft deep.

Cute campground and they are doing a lot of work to the streets and tent sites. However, as others have said, the electric hookup RV sites are right on top of each other. We were awakened on the middle of the night to our neighbor’s son coughing and crying. They do have electric and water (one spicket shared between 2 sites). The water is very low flow. They have an RV dump area with water in the non electric camping area. There is a cute 1 mile trail to the mountain being the coyote creek.

BE PREPARED FOR HIGH ALTITUDES! Stay hydrated. Get here early. This a VERY POPULAR area. About a miles beyond the quandary Point trail head, but easily accessible to public. Not everyone will stay, but come and go all night. No phone service. Very remote if you can get a spot on the other side of the lake. Unsure how many sites, if I have to guess 15-20. You do not need 4x4 or high clearance, but will make the drive easier, as it is very rocky at points. Perfect for tent camping and disconnecting from your phone and reconnecting to nature. No facilities - Water, power, toilets.

A remote location and popular with horse campers and hunters.  The campground has sites with horse corrals installed. The campground was quiet and mostly clean. There are pit toilets on site and well maintained. Level spots with good separation. Nice hiking accross some flat lands and a smal creek runs near by. Early one morning we saw a herd of elk down in a valley near a turn out off the road.  Bears frequent the area trying to raid the garbage bins during the night. Makes tent camping a bit unnerving. If you want to explore the area, this is good place to camp.  It takes an hour to get to the campsite on a graveled road off the highway out of Cimerron.  25mph was best speed to go to handle the washboard road to the campsite.

I grew up going to this campsite almost every summer, so this review may be a little biased. The campsites are great, specially for tent camping. There are some big spots for RVs but those get pulled quickly. The campsites are a little close together, but I have never had any problems. The facilities are nice enough as well.

This campsite sits on the edge of a road next to two little ponds that are great for trout fishing. The river runs next to the ponds and you can find a few fish there too. I like to walk up and down the river to find some good spots that are a little quieter. The ponds fill up with quite a few people now.

You will need to bring everything you need. There are not any stores really close by, you will have to go to Cimarron ot Eagle Nest to stock on supplies if you are missing anything and they can be 30 minutes away. There are also no big box stores in these towns so things close down early.

This was our 3rd visit and this time we stayed at site #14.  Beautiful forest, nice campground... however, this Red River area has been taken over by groups from Texas and Oklahoma primarily.  Large groups with multiple campers book up the sites and then put up canopies and tables for large parties.  It isn't quite the same as in years past.  I understand their states don't have pretty places like this, but every campground in the area (there are several forest service campgrounds as well as commercial campgrounds) are FULL to overflowing with these large groups.  

If you are looking for quiet and enjoying peace with nature, it isn't at Red River anymore.  It wouldn't bother us so much if there weren't STATE mandated orders about groups and wearing masks, but majority of these people do not follow these New Mexico rules.  Hearing them be abusive to locals and NM residents about it has really soured us on visiting here in the near future.  

It used to be a nice area... love the campground, but the CROWDS,,,, yuck.

I tent-camped off of Carson NF Forest Service Road 578 in mid April 2022. FS 578 is south of Tres Piedras about 5 miles on the west side of Hwy 285. There are several dirt road turn offs but FS 578 is clearly marked with a brown NFS sign (see photo) and has no gate but there is a cattle guard/grate. Here is a NFS road use map that shows dispersed camping along FS 578 and many other NFS roads: https://www.fs.fed.us/r3/gis/mvum/Carson/CarsonTresPiedrasCanjilonElRito.pdf (see also screenshot). My Tacoma had no problem on the dirt road, which has ruts and might be tough for an RV. There were few clearings suitable for dispersed camping but I found a nice spot with a small fire circle in a small clearing on the south side of the road just past a fork in the road. I carried two black boulders over to serve as a table and chair. I didn’t see anyone else camping or driving by. The forest is a nice mix of sage, juniper, and pine trees. I saw two elk across a swath of sage. I could see the snow capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range on the eastern horizon when I walked farther up the road. It got cold at night, like 27 F. It was a nice waypoint on my trip between Gunnison CO and El Paso TX but it didn’t look like many people camped there. I had intended to drive to Taos the next day on Hwy 64, but didn’t.