Best Equestrian Camping near Llano, NM

Jacks Creek Horse Camp provides primitive equestrian camping within the Carson National Forest near Pecos, New Mexico, approximately 40 miles from Llano. The campground features dedicated sites that accommodate tent camping and smaller RVs, with space for horse trailers. While no formal horse corrals are listed in the facility amenities, the camp offers pit toilets and potable drinking water for campers. Site reviews note the campground is surrounded by ranch land where cattle occasionally roam through the area. The camp serves as an important access point to the Pecos Wilderness with excellent trail connectivity for riders seeking backcountry experiences.

Trail access is a primary feature at Jacks Creek, with direct connections to Beatty's Trail and other wilderness routes. The campground sits at approximately 8,900 feet elevation, resulting in cooler temperatures even during summer months. Riders have access to multiple stream crossings along nearby trails, providing natural water sources for horses during day rides. Sites accommodate multiple horses with sufficient room for portable corrals or highlines. The campground maintains a quiet atmosphere ideal for those traveling with horses sensitive to noise and activity. Forest Service roads leading to the camp are generally maintained but can present challenges for larger horse trailers, particularly after rainfall or during spring thaw periods.

Best Equestrian Sites Near Llano, New Mexico (13)

    1. Agua Piedra Campground

    10 Reviews
    Llano, NM
    9 miles
    Website
    +1 (435) 245-6521

    $40 / night

    "There is a trail head with 2 trails, one atv accessible and one hiking/horse that goes up to Indian Lake. Beautiful views and about 1200' elevation change."

    "Tent camped at this location in the middle of September (a week before closing). Very beautiful place to watch the leaves change, trailheads close by and picnic tables at each site."

    2. Santa Barbara Campground

    8 Reviews
    Llano, NM
    5 miles
    Website
    +1 (435) 245-6521

    $22 - $70 / night

    "Stay at Santa Barbara Campground in Northern New Mexico. Was a beautiful spot. Road to Campground was well taken care of Beautiful trails throughout area"

    "The trails are absolutely wonderful and well worth taking a few hours to walk part of them. Hard core hikers will use the campground as a starting point for a lengthy hikes."

    3. Borrego Mesa Campground

    6 Reviews
    Truchas, NM
    12 miles
    Website
    +1 (505) 753-7331

    "About a 15min drive from the highway. Only 5 or 6 sites. Close to the Rio Mario Trail trailhead. Campsite is at elevation over 8,000ft so it can get chilly at night. Worked great for tent camping."

    "Campground is a little off the beaten path, about 30m from the High Drive highway. Dirt roads were nothing to worry about, should be fine for any SUV or sedan."

    4. Iron Gate Campground

    8 Reviews
    Tererro, NM
    21 miles
    Website
    +1 (505) 757-6121

    "During rainy seasons, ruts form with deep mud on some spots driving up."

    "It's a nice little place tucked away in the woods. The road to get there is a bit rough, hence the title. By no means, Not a road for a large trailer or 5th wheel. Wild life everywhere.."

    5. Jacks Creek Horse Camp

    3 Reviews
    Tererro, NM
    21 miles
    Website

    "The sites on the outside of the loops are decently wooded, smaller and not well suited to RVs. The sites on the inside of the loops have longer, RV sized pull in and little trees."

    "Great overnight spot to use as a "home base" with lots of trail access. Multiple units of corrals and plenty of parking and turnaround space for large trailers."

    6. Jacks Creek Group Area

    1 Review
    Tererro, NM
    21 miles
    Website

    $100 / night

    "Beautiful drive out, creeks on both sides. Nestled deep in the Pecos Wilderness. Camping overlooks the mountains. Beatty’s trail head is nearby. Made a fire and had electric to charge my phone"

    7. Carson NF - Forest Service Road 578 - Dispersed Camping

    5 Reviews
    Carson National Forest, NM
    33 miles
    Website
    +1 (575) 758-8678

    "Many open areas to camp right off the highway. The views of the mountains across the valley are best after the fork in the road. Please pick up extra trash if you use"

    "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."

    8. Las Vegas/New Mexico KOA Journey

    15 Reviews
    Las Vegas, NM
    50 miles
    Website
    +1 (505) 454-0180

    $45 - $75 / night

    "It is off the highway but nice and secluded. Pretty location and outside of Las Vegas, NM. It isn’t a five star because the sites are pretty close together"

    "4/5/2021 Right off the highway. One of the nicer KOA's we have stayed at in the Southwest."

    9. Hopewell Lake Campground

    8 Reviews
    Tierra Amarilla, NM
    50 miles
    Website
    +1 (435) 245-6521

    $24 - $125 / night

    "My wife and I have stayed at Hopewell Lake twice now. The first time we stayed here, we stumbled upon this little gem of a site while driving from Durango, CO to Taos, NM."

    "No luck fishing but several people around us were catching very nice sized trout. Vault toilets were well stocked and clean."

    10. Ghost Ranch

    6 Reviews
    Cañones, NM
    45 miles
    Website

    "The whole ranch has been turned into a top notch facility with campgrounds and motel rooms, horses for rent, classes, and great hiking. The campground is large with several interconnecting loops."

    "Recommend arriving not too late to see if you can get a good spot, we didn’t have shade so had to go find a nice shady bench away from our site for eating lunch / relaxing after our hike."

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Equestrian Camping Reviews near Llano, NM

80 Reviews of 13 Llano Campgrounds


  • Karen  N.
    Aug. 21, 2023

    Santa Barbara Campground

    Beautiful weekend

    Stay at Santa Barbara Campground in Northern New Mexico. Was a beautiful spot. Road to Campground was well taken care of Beautiful trails throughout area

  • Tyler G.
    Jun. 22, 2016

    Hopewell Lake Campground

    Wonderful Campground in the scenic Tusas Mountains

    My wife and I have stayed at Hopewell Lake twice now. The first time we stayed here, we stumbled upon this little gem of a site while driving from Durango, CO to Taos, NM. It was enchanting enough that we made sure to make it back for an opportunity to take in the scenery and relax during a long weekend. The only issue we ran into was an abundance of mosquitos, but this should be expected during the late Spring/early Summer in northern New Mexico and can be easily addressed with a citronella candle and a bit of bug spray. Our most recent stay was on one of those rare nights where you can pull off the rain fly and not worry about a midnight downpour, which left us with a wonderful view of the stars, and the sites are private enough that, as long as you don't set up next to the table, it's comfortable with an open tent and away from prying eyes.

    The campground is nice, very well maintained, and the site host is friendly and helpful. The grounds are a

  • Warren K.
    Aug. 31, 2016

    Las Vegas/New Mexico KOA Journey

    Campground close to a cool little town

    We stopped here for an overnighter and it was not the most aesthetic choice, but the town of Las Vegas is quite charming. The town has a great plaza and historic hotel where we had a pretty good meal. The sunsets and landscape in this part of New Mexico really take your breath away.

  • DThe Dyrt PRO User
    Jul. 28, 2025

    Iron Gate Campground

    Not as great as I thought it would be.

    Based on the reviews I thought this place would be a cool oasis up in the trees. Alas, it's not. There's a loop with 14 total sites. Unfortunately, at least half the sites in the inner ring are unusable because of road runoff making it tough to get to them, and we have a Toyota Tacoma. As a result, they do not get used and are, therefore, overgrown with New Mexico ground cover, which is not comparable to soft grass. That immediately bumps it down to about 10 sites. When we arrived, there was one site available that we could access. It was behind the main trailhead parking area and completely shaded. All in all, not bad, just not our ideal choice since it's right there close to any and all foot traffic. Luckily, as we walked the rest of the loop to see if there was anything else, a couple was just finishing packing up so we were able to snag their spot (#13), which we felt was the best one. Score! 

    Now, let's talk the road to get there. Absolutely do not try to take a camper of any size to this campground unless it's a legit overland type tear or squaredrop, ideally with an articulating hitch. People are not kidding when they say that's not a good idea. We had our Tacoma in 4L and I'm honestly not sure how some 2WD vehicles make it. There are many spots where the incline is pretty good, a number of deep crevices as a result of water runoff, many sections that are absolutely one lane only, and at least 6 spots where there was a small pond of standing water to drive through. Were any of the ponds show stoppers, no, but the water in one dip came up past the bottom of our doors. All in all, the road is no joke. Yes, I get this is a forest road, but the road snakes through multiple pieces of residential property (albeit they are probably summer homes but we saw people at almost every house when we drove past), and there's a hiking trailhead at the campground, so I expected it to be not THAT bad. In my book, it's not officially 'offroading' but it's worse than other forest service roads we've been on. Oh, and the couple residents we passed driving in their vehicles (you can tell by looking at them they are not campers or hikers) made it abundantly clear they weren't happy with us being on their road. All in all, nice campground with great trailheads but there are too many other beautiful places to hike and camp in NM for us to want to go back.

  • Jeff K.The Dyrt PRO User
    Apr. 28, 2020

    Borrego Mesa Campground

    Great campsite!!

    Good road all the way in. About a 15min drive from the highway. Only 5 or 6 sites. Close to the Rio Mario Trail trailhead. Campsite is at elevation over 8,000ft so it can get chilly at night. Worked great for tent camping. Sites have a small horse pen but you would need to make a gate on them. Not good for big LQ horse trailers.

  • Steve & Ashley  G.The Dyrt PRO User
    Aug. 16, 2019

    Agua Piedra Campground

    Great Northern New Mexico Camp

    We stayed at this site on the way back to Texas from our Colorado trip this summer. This is a great National Forest Campground south of Taos in the Carson Forest. The campground is just off the highway and situated in a beautiful mountain pine forest and next to a great trout stream. You have great shade during the hotter summer months. It’s far enough away from the highway that you don’t hear the traffic. It has a huge meadow and group camp site which look fantastic. The individual sites have some privacy between the sites and come equipped with fire pits and picnic tables. We made a reservation but the camp had a number of open sites in the peak summer season. The highlight here is the proximity of great hiking to nearby lakes and fishing in the trout stream. They had great facilities including clean pit toilets and some historic log cabins. They have a camp host and the sites accommodate tents and smaller vans and campers. I would give this another visit on our next trip to NM.

  • marine J.The Dyrt PRO User
    Jun. 14, 2024

    RV Park at HIPICO Santa Fe

    Great location close to Santa Fe

    This is a very spacious private campground southwest of Santa Fe with access to public land. Located 20 minutes from downtown Santa Fe. There are probably 50 sites with restrooms and showers. I saw a few tent but this is really geared toward RVs. They have discounts if you stay 4 to 6 days it is 10% off and 7 to 14 days it is 15% off. There is really nothing to it but it is so spacious and quiet, great vibe and the staff is super nice and helpful. They offer overnight stabling for horses too.

  • Tammy V.
    Aug. 21, 2017

    Agua Piedra Campground

    Excellent campground!

    There is a trail head with 2 trails, one atv accessible and one hiking/horse that goes up to Indian Lake. Beautiful views and about 1200' elevation change.

    Potable water available at camp host's location. It has sulfer but the smell cleared after half a day sitting in the sun. We brought our own to drink though.

    Some campsites were more separated and others were close together if you were with a group. River runs along the camp for fishing, and they were catching fish.

  • James F.The Dyrt PRO User
    Aug. 22, 2021

    Santa Barbara Campground

    Beautiful Hiking

    This is a great campground if you like to take some hikes through some beautiful national forest with a picturesque river. The Santa Barbara Campground is relatively small and most of the sites can't accommodate large rv's. A small travel trailer or tent works well in most sites. None of the sites have hook ups so you will be boon docking. There are vault toilets and water available. Sign on the water spigot said not to connect a hose though so filling your rv or trailer is not what they were intended for. I guess it was good that I filled before I left home. There are lots of trees for shade and beauty. The trails are absolutely wonderful and well worth taking a few hours to walk part of them. Hard core hikers will use the campground as a starting point for a lengthy hikes. There were a few cows that got into the camping area. There can also be horses on the trails so be vigilant.The temperatures were quite moderate as the campsite is at 8900 feet. You can hear the Santa Barbara River as it is very close.


Guide to Llano

New Mexico offers stunning landscapes and diverse trails, making it a fantastic destination for horse camping enthusiasts. With a variety of campgrounds that cater to equestrian needs, you can enjoy the great outdoors while bringing your horse along for the adventure.

Equestrian campers like these nearby activities

  • At Jacks Creek Horse Camp, you can explore numerous trails that lead into the beautiful Pecos Wilderness, perfect for both riding and hiking.
  • The Iron Gate Campground is a great base for overnight backpacking trips, with easy access to scenic trails and river views.
  • Santa Barbara Campground offers a peaceful setting with nearby hiking trails, making it ideal for a weekend getaway with your horse.

Campers appreciate these amenities for horses

  • Jacks Creek Group Area features corrals and ample parking space for large trailers, making it convenient for equestrian groups.
  • The Hopewell Lake Campground provides spacious sites with livestock pens, allowing for easy management of your horse during your stay.
  • At Borrego Mesa Campground, you can find a secluded area perfect for setting up camp with your horse, surrounded by beautiful ponderosa pines.

Most campgrounds have horse-focused amenities like corrals

  • Agua Piedra Campground allows pets and has facilities that cater to horse camping, ensuring a comfortable stay for both you and your horse.
  • The RV Park at HIPICO Santa Fe offers overnight stabling for horses, making it a convenient stop for equestrian travelers.
  • Ghost Ranch provides a unique experience with horseback riding opportunities and beautiful trails, perfect for those looking to explore the area on horseback.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Llano, NM?

According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Llano, NM is Agua Piedra Campground with a 4.3-star rating from 10 reviews.

What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Llano, NM?

TheDyrt.com has all 13 equestrian camping locations near Llano, NM, with real photos and reviews from campers.