Best Campgrounds near Sapello, NM

Each time we make a trip to the area, I look into different dispersed areas, but always come back to this one.

The road can be a little bumpy, but there was numerous spots along the way. Decently sized, mostly flat areas to set up for the night. Some spots the entrance is steep, so be wary of small cars if it’s muddy.

This area hasn’t ever been super busy when we come, there are fire pits at most sites, and a good amount of downed branches/small sticks for fire wood.

We always look forward to coming back this way when we are in the area.

Ps. There are cattle in the area, but they’ve left us alone each time, they can be quite curious looking across the creek bed.

I often camp by Diablo Canyon, which has wonderful sunsets and decent off trail hiking.  There's even a cave for those who know where to find it. 

I've also camped down by the river for the access to water for splashing about and cooking, but the area is popular with Mexican families and sometimes attracts a party crowd.

There are plenty of more remote spots off the main gravel road that would be even quieter.  The terrain is juniper and oak, with cottonwoods by the river. 

Temperatures run hot in the summer and freezing in winter, although it is the best choice for winter camping near Santa Fe.   Summers the wife and I most often drive up Artist Road and camp at Big Tesuque or the skiiiway at the top, but we did choose Buckman this summer when thunderstorms pounded the mountains. 

It does take time to drive the gravel road, and there's not much for ordinary folks around Las Campanas, the wealthy housing division between the camping and town.  You might get to Airport Road and Cerrillos under an hour, but getting to the Plaza will take longer. 

Cell service is spotty.

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.

There are about 10 (couldn't tell exactly due to the number of cars, campers, and tents) sites all lined up next to each other like parking spots in a Walmart parking lot. There's nothing that separates you from your neighbor. And, there's a rundown house with what appears to be 3 or 4 abandoned cars (at least they certainly do not look like they'd run) less than 100 yards to the south of the 'campground'.  I can see why this is a popular spot, as it is right along the river, but there's no way I would ever camp there. That said, we went (or tried to, we didn't actually stay there) in late July, in the height of summer, so there were a TON people, cars, and campers all going up and down Highway 63 from Pecos. If the weather is nice, just know there will be a lot, and it ends up being more like a party private campground than a small, national forest environment. But regardless, unless it's the middle of winter, which may guarantee we wouldn't have someone else camping 12 feet from us, it's a hard pass for us on this one.