Best Campgrounds near Shiprock, NM

Campground is a bit more than 5 miles down the smoothest dirt road we’ve ever traveled. Clean vault toilets and covered picnic tables at some sites. Fantastic views.

Very nice! Clean bathrooms and picnic tables. Flat parking lot.

10/10 would recommend. Road is a little rocky once you get off the gravel road but totally worth it. Plenty of camp spots right on the edge with an incredible view. Up there with one of the coolest spots I’ve ever stayed at.

Morefield Campground, located just inside Mesa Verde National Park, offers a convenient and scenic basecamp for exploring the park’s incredible ancient cliff dwellings and stunning landscapes. The campground is spacious and well-organized, with over 250 sites that accommodate tents, RVs, and trailers. The setting is peaceful, with sweeping views of mesas and easy access to trails like the Point Lookout Trail.

Amenities are a highlight here, including flush toilets, showers, a well-stocked camp store, and even a fuel station. It’s an excellent choice for families or those who appreciate a few comforts while camping.

However, campers should be prepared for sudden and severe weather. The high desert location can bring intense storms with strong winds. During our stay, our tent nearly flew away despite being staked down securely, so it’s worth bringing extra gear like sandbags or heavy-duty stakes to keep your setup anchored.

Overall, Morefield Campground is an excellent choice for exploring Mesa Verde, combining convenient amenities with a beautiful natural setting. Just keep an eye on the weather and pack accordingly to ensure a comfortable stay.

While kind of on the pricier side for campgrounds I really enjoyed my 2 nights there in early Oct 24. Easy access to get on the road to the cliff dwellings early in the day, flush bathrooms, tons of sites, trails nearby, a little center with a store, cafe, gas, and most importantly showers. 

They let you pick your site which is nice so I got a site with a flat spot for my rooftop tent, but some sites are definately more geared to tent camping, but there are tons of site options.

Would stay again.

River views in the morning are so pretty. Roads a bit rocky comin in, we didnt have any problems in our subaru crosstreck but could be tough if the geound gets muddy.

Two nights here. Boondocks go, no water needed, but great location, restrooms nearby. Very peaceful.

Camped at site #11. Beautiful sunset view. We drove a 4WD truck with truck bed camper with no problem. Never took it out of 2WD.

17 spots all pretty spaced out, filled up around 5pm on Sunday October 12 (but this could be due to the Indigenous Peoples day being tomorrow).

The surrounding landscape is beautiful.

We didn’t find the road too bad in our Ram Promaster, but we have a pretty high clearance.

Beautiful place! It's pretty easy to get into, there are more secluded places up the hill a ways but it gets kinda rough. You can hear the highway, but it's not much. Just ambient background noise. I got a spot with shade all day, so that was awesome. There was one night an inconsiderate person parked his company truck and camper as close to me as was possible with wide open space all over and ran his generator. Luckily he was gone the next day.

Newer RV park, so everything is in great shape, and the wifi is super fast, 76 mb download, and 65 upload. The only downside is that every site does not have a picnic table, but there are two gas grills at the office/club house for everyone's use. Extremely nice small town. We will definitely stay here if in the area.

The only reason I give this place a 3 is because of the close proximity to Mesa Verde NP. This stay is only for high clearance vehicles and small RV's. Deep drain ditches between service road and sites. All sites are extremely uneven. Also the road and sites have sharp crushed shale stone. I have a 35 foot 5th RV and was way too big for this place. But by the grace of God I managed to back into site 12. How the use planks to shore up the ditches so I could get in without bottoming out. I will not return.

Hovenweep is a national monument with small but modern quiet campgrounds. The dark skies for amazing stars are spectacular. While they do not have showers, their bathrooms were clean and convenient to the loop of campsites. It was quiet and the rangers were friendly and warm. The Hovenweep monument archeological treasures are well worth scheduling a few hours to hike and visit. There are several ancient structures on the site (a small canyon) and the hikes are short and sooooo worth doing.

Monday evening, third week of September site 25. Quiet. Well spaced sites. Sloped towards lake. At least this site and 26 would be difficult to find level spot for tent and requires lots of rocks or blocks to level rv. Note west side of lake campsites are 6 miles from US160. Deer came out around 6 pm. Bear area, none seen. Nice stopping place.