Do you love the outdoors and horses? If you're looking for a rustic but comfortable experience, horse camping in Vallecitos is the way to go. Camping with your horse in Vallecitos just got easier. Search horse campsites and discover top-rated spots, as reviewed by other campers.
Campground is closed for current season of use. Coyote Ranger District @ 575-638-5526 for current status
The Rio Chama is a developed no-fee campground where reservations are not required. Located along the Rio Chama Wild & Scenic River, the developed campground offers a great place for families,
Ten individual campsites each include a picnic table and a campfire ring. RV's up to 20 feet can be accommodated in only a few sites. No potable water, or hookups.
The Borrego Mesa Campground is located close to several trailheads leading into the north half of the Pecos Wilderness. Amenitites include picnic tables, firepits and small corrals at each site suitable for one or two horses. The Vaulted toilet is currently not in service. Adjacent to and south of the campground is the Rio Medio Trailhead, one of the major trailheads into the Pecos Wilderness. The campground is rather primitive and little used, and is much less developed than most. It is primarily used for picnicking by locals from nearby communities, and also serves those who use it for an overnight stay before embarking on a horsepack or backpack into the Pecos. There is ample space for trailer/RV camping, but no dump station is available. There is no potable water and no Campground Host.
Santa Barbara Campground is situated nicely on the edge of the Pecos Wilderness area and next to Rio Santa Barbara, a beautiful and healthy trout stream.
This is a great drop off point for hikers and horseback riders seeking close access to the Pecos Wilderness and Jicarita Peak.
Santa Barbara is located in a mixed forest of spruce, fir and aspen trees, which provide some shade throughout the day. At an altitude of 8,900 feet, temperatures can cool off during the summer nights.
Trail access to Jicarita Peak, with close access to North Truchas Peak, Sipapu Ski Resort, the town of Vadito, and the town of Penasco are all nearby. All are within 8-15 miles from the campground. Most services are available in Taos, NM, 25 miles north of the campground or Espanola, NM, 45 miles southwest.
For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
$70 / night
Hopewell Lake Campground sits next to its scenic namesake lake between Tres Piedras and Tierra Amarilla in northern New Mexico. Visitors enjoy horseback riding, hiking, fishing and canoeing.
The 14-acre lake is perfect for canoeing and is regularly stocked with rainbow and brook trout. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail goes through the campgound, and is popular with horseback riders and hikers.
Hopewell Lake is a small, man-made lake, set high in the Carson National Forest at an elevation of 9,500 feet. A forest of conifer and aspen trees covers the area and offers partial shade in the campground.
For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
$24 / night
Agua Piedra, located in the Carson National Forest, is nestled near the Rio Pueblo and Agua Piedra Creek. The campground contains many shaded areas to camp, relax, and enjoy the outdoors.
Visitors to the Agua Piedra campground and group shelters can also enjoy fishing in the Rio Pueblo River, which is a tributary of the mighty Rio Grande. The river is stocked with rainbow trout and there is a small pier in the day use area.Hiking to Serpent Lake and Cordova Canyon, which are both within seven miles of the campground and group shelters, are also favorite activities for visitors. Also popular is further exploration of points of interest in the Pecos Wilderness, as well as within the Sangre De Cristos Mountains, the southernmost Rocky Mountain range.
Agua Piedra campground and group shelters are located in a mixed forest of spruce, fir and aspen trees, which provide some shade throughout the day. At an altitude of 8,100 feet, temperatures can cool off during the summer nights.
For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
Sipapu Ski Resort, the town of Vadito, and the town of Penasco is within 3 - 17 miles from the campground and group shelter. Most services are available in Taos, NM, 25 miles north of the campground or Espanola, NM, 45 miles southwest.
$150 / night
Located above 9,000 feet, Iron Gate Campground is an excellent spot to access the Pecos Wilderness for day hiking and horseback riding. Uses: camping, hiking, horseback riding. Facilities: 14 units, vaulted toilets, trash bin, tables, fire pit/grill, 4 horse corrals. NO WATER. Special Instructions: Maximum recommended length for vehicle and horse trailer is 30 feet. Forest Road 223 very rough and not recemmeded for low clearance vehicles. Users are encouraged to recycle and pack out trash. Please visit the Leave No Trace website for more information about frontcountry and backcountry outdoor ethics at www.lnt.org. NO ATVs ALLOWED IN CAMPGROUND
Guide
Very small, but quiet and secluded primitive campground. Several sites appear to be overgrown or have too much debris to be usable. There are a couple sites that could fit a small trailer. All are suitable for tents or a van. The bathroom is still out of order. Mobile coverage was spotty, worked better if you went up to the nearby trailhead. The road up to the campground is in good shape, 4x4 not required. Overall traffic was very low. There was a little bit of firewood cutting nearby, with a few trucks making multiple trips. A few families were up on Sat for picnics. UTVs were minimal. There are a few dispersed options in the area.
Traveler
Our truck broke down 1 mile from the ranch and we weren’t sure what to do so I hopped on my mountain bike and rode to the welcome center. I met a wonderful lady who offered a gentleman who worked there to help me. He grabbed his truck and towed me and my trailer to the campsite. We ended up staying there for about five or six days while the truck was being fixed in Albuquerque. Couldn’t have broken down in a better place. The scenery is beautiful and the people are nice. It’s true they had meal plans, but we were prepared to camp off grid so we didn’t need anything. Instead, we enjoyed the views and the museum and the, swimming pool and horseback riding. Completely unplanned. It’s probably important to know this is not a remote campsite because there’s lots of amenities and if you’re the kind of person looking for a flat asphalt pad to park is your camper on them, you might wanna move on. We definitely love this place and would recommend it to anyone looking for secret little area to chill out. The vibe was perfect. looking forward to coming back.
Scout
Everyone, this is a beautiful site with Lots of trees. The camp ground is nestled up in the mountains several miles from town. The stream is nice and comforting and the camp host was very informative and helpful.**** HOWEVER, there are herds of cows that roam the campground. They defecate EVERYWHERE!!! The cows keep you up all matters of the night. You can’t take 4 steps without stepping in poop-It’s EVERYWHERE!!!( Flies included) This site would be so perfect but you can’t eat or cook around the pit because it is surrounded by cow poop. We cut our camping trip short because it was just too much.
Guide
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.
GuideIf you're in the area and they have availability, it's hard to beat Ghost Ranch for value. RV spots with hookups are $45 a night!
Most guests stay in housing/lodging, so the ranch has a dining hall that serves three meals a day. $16 per person per meal but $30 for three meals on a "meal plan" whe you book, and kids eat for free! All in all we got three meals for our family of 4 and a nights stay while we hiked around trails on the property for less than $100 all in, and the food (upscale summer camp type) was very good.
Georgia O'Keefe lived in the property for a while, so there's a lot of history about her, and there's a small dinosaur and anthropology museum on site.
Chimney Rock hike is not to be missed!
Guide
There are a bunch of different roads you can turn off to camp on if you’re driving from Taos to Durango. We mapped Forest Road 578 and it took us to a dirt road with a lot of flat spots you can camp on. We spent the night there and it was very quiet and peaceful. If you keep going to Durango you’ll get to Carson National Forest, which is not too far from the coordinates on The Dyrt. That’s where more people are camping, you can pull off right before the 64H road marker. You’ll keep passing camping spots as you drive to Durango so you can really go almost anywhere!
ScoutVisited late September, about a quarter of the sites were occupied. All sites are close enough to the river to hear it from a tent. The site has drinking water and pit toilets, but no cell service. Overall, stay was very peaceful and relaxing.
Guide
We found a secluded spot, not on the river. It was nice due to the area being overwhelmed with people. Overall it was enjoyable but can be a long winding journey for those that are impatient.
GuideStay at Santa Barbara Campground in Northern New Mexico. Was a beautiful spot. Road to Campground was well taken care of Beautiful trails throughout area
Scout
This is a great place for couples who want to camp
TravelerCampground 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. Campground itself is on ranch land (keep an eye out for cows) and does have trash around, but nothing too bad. Bathroom is very much out of order.
ScoutThe location on Dyrt maps is wrong, forest service is NW of 285 & 64. Beautiful dispersed camping spots plentiful. Park ranger Melissa was the top notch. Couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly. Definitely stay there again.
TravelerA nice secluded little forest road. RVs will not make it, so it's nice and quiet.
AWD/4WD needed on the rutted rocky road.
Stayed one night and saw no one else.
Multiple pulloffs for unmarked campsites, but the one I picked was right off the road.
Cell service drops completely pretty soon after leaving the highway. I sporadically received some messages at my camp site but not reliably.
TravelerCampsites are close together but far enough to maintain some privacy. The bathrooms were well-maintained. Definitely worth the visit!
TravelerStopped at Ghost Ranch for a quick night to catch some sleep, wish we had more time really great location!
TravelerThis is a beautiful campground in a unique spot with incredible hike. Great amenities - showers, ice, refrigerator, sink for washing dishes - only downside is that the sites themselves seem a bit crowded in and not all have cover. Some are larger than others and it’s a bit of a pint what you will get. 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.
GuideWe did a night here and it was amazing. Even though it rained it did not deter our trip. It was still dry enough to do all things camping. They also have a restroom which is a nice bonus.
ScoutMany 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
GuideThis is a great spot with wonderful huge ponderosa pines all around, but there has been a bunch of shooting up the toilets and there is a fair amount of trash around. Still we had it to ourselves during the week, and could find a spot that was clean and fit our teardrop trailer. it would be difficult to get an fullsize RV up there at all. The road is rather arduous especially because of the fairly recent fire damage. Still is was a peaceful place with lots of nice walking around.
RangerI 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.
GuideIt'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..
Traveler
This is our favorite spot for our annual big family camping trip. It is gorgeous! The views are spectacular. It's nice and cool even in summer. The trout fishing is fun and always a success at the lake. We've only stayed at the developed camp ground once, and it was nice especially with the toilets. We prefer to stay in one of the dispersed areas now, though, because we have such a large group.
ScoutThis campground is always overcrowded, and the camping sites are too close to each other but it’s located between trees and is really close to trail heads. There is a river nearby but not to close to the camping sites that you can overlook the river. Sadly, bathroom facilities are not clean
TravelerI wasn’t sure what to think of the site before coming, but it was pretty and the road in wasn’t that bad. There were a good number of yellow jackets around. It wasn’t very quiet due to ATVs and chainsaws. The site had some trash and I wasn’t able to help pick up all of it but it wasn’t so much that it was bothersome. It was really nice that there was only one other site being used and they were at the opposite end so I couldn’t see or hear them. The bathroom isn’t in service right now either, but for one night it was a nice site!
GuideThis 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.
ScoutThis was a great spot right along the river with bathrooms only about 20 mins/8 miles from the Hwy. This spot has a lot of potential to make it however you want, had we of had more time we would’ve gone further up the river because I think there were better spots along the river about a mile up but we found three trees to hammock from and that’s all you can ask for in the desert. Will definitely come back here but go further up stream and bring fishing poles and kayaks.
Scout
Lovely small camping area about 15 mi north of Pecos, NM on NM 63. 2 loops. Good sites for car/tent camping. Well maintained with clean vault toilets. Fire rings and picnic tables. Rained every afternoon (real boomers!) while we were there, but no problem for us. Will definitely visit again!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most popular equestrian campsite near Vallecitos, NM?
According to TheDyrt.com, the most popular equestrian campground near Vallecitos, NM is Rio Chama Campground with a 4.8-star rating from 14 reviews.
What is the best site to find equestrian camping near Vallecitos, NM?
TheDyrt.com has all 13 equestrian camping locations near Vallecitos, NM, with real photos and reviews from campers.
