Fenton Lake State Park — Fenton Lake Fishing Area (and Dam)

Love coming here with the family. Some campgrounds are reservation only but there are still plenty that are first come first serve. But this is a holiday weekend hotspot so you need to come early or avoid a holiday weekend all together, but still worth a drive out here. 

Nice area to camp

Favorite place to camp, mountains and hot springs near by fishing at Fenton or the near by streams. 

Fenton lake in Jemez, NM

Crowded - granted it was Memorial Day, but it doesn't take much to overwhelm this small lake! It is certainly gorgeous and I'll definitely go back, I'll just make sure it's on a random Tuesday. If you are headed here and you don't need picnic tables or pit toilets, go just up the road for beautiful camping! TIP - go up to FS road 378 (next road just north of the lake) and drive a short distance for some amazing "primitive" camping spots filled with green grass and bright aspen trees - well worth it.

Not on Holidays!

Very open and beautiful. Lots of camp options

I’ve been coming to Fenton Lake for camping with family since I was little and we’ve always loved it. It’s beautiful and well taken care of.  Park rangers are always making their rounds and always friendly and helpful.  Plenty of tent sites; only a few have some good privacy. Not many electrical hookups though. Trash bins and vault toilets are usually close by. Love the trail that runs along the side of the camp and the stream that runs adjacent to the campsites. Fishing is fun but get there early because spots fill up quickly. Only downfall I’ve seen is that theres only one water spigot and it’s right at the lake. 

One of our favorite places to go camping! 

Fenton Lake is usually busy and reserving months ahead of time is a good idea. We like spots number 1 and 17 for tent camping. Rangers patrol the campgrounds and in general people are usually well behaved. Nice hikes along the creek. Getting a fishing spot may be hard to find sometimes as the small lake is usually circled with people fishing. Fishing is usually good though as it is well stocked. Temperatures at night can get down in the low forties after being in the eighties during the day.

Nice State Park

This campsite was great! We were able to beat the cold weather by utilizing heats in our campsites. The landscape was beautiful, with beaver dams and song birds giving us amazing views. No service so make sure to plan in advance! 

Pine Wonderland 

I know the park rangers are spread thin, but the check-in system is pretty disorganized.  If you aren't familiar with the park and campground, it could be easy to take a wrong turn if you're trying to find your own way.  And that would be no fun in an RV.  We arrived at 4pm in our Class A, and there was a park ranger checking folks in.  He found our reservation, but NOT the extra payment we had made for our kids to be able to drive to meet us and park on our site (extra $10 per day per vehicle).  Later, I found the paperwork proving we had paid, but not  until my kids had already paid for a day when they arrived.  And getting a refund was going to be too much hassle.  And they don't always have any staff at the entry.  So some folks are left to fend for themselves when trying to find their campsites.  

  

That's the bad news.  Good news is that this tiny little lake and the surrounding area is lovely.  It's great if you fish. We don't, but we took several easy but longish hikes and it's just beautiful.  Lots of birds, wildflowers and we even saw a beaver on the lake!  The campsites are nice too...many are right along the Rio Cerros river (stream really) that makes up the lake.  The one loop with electric sites (where we stayed) is a bit back from the water, but there is still LOTS of shade.  We sat our for hours and enjoyed the quiet.

  

30 amp service only.  Decent water pressure.  No dump station on site (another drawback).  No cell service of any kind.  There are a couple of satellite wi-fi hot spots around, but after 30 minutes, you have to pay, and it is incredibly slow.  I had to use it once for work; not great.  So just plan to be 100% disconnected.  I liked the 2pm check out time, by the way.  We slept in quite late for us on our last day, and still had plenty of time to get packed and out of there!

  

We are already talking about next year's visit!

Beautiful spot.  Somewhat disorganized.

We typically come up to Fenton Lake once a year and last year was fantastic however this year the park rangers aren’t that friendly (or that helpful).  For instance, my father-in-law came up for a day but the power went out all over and didn’t have access to an ATM to pay the $5 day pass. They wouldn’t allow him to come up to our site to tell us (no cell service to call us) so he parked outside and had to hike in. He’s 73.  

Also during our stay, a couple of ladies across our campsite got locked out and my husband and other male friend helped break into it as the park ranger watched claiming he couldn’t help for liability reasons so he just watched us like a hawk, completely unhelpful. 

We were stopped several times when driving around and park rangers stop and walk up to your car to check we’re all paid up. I can understand this but it was rather excessive being stopped 2-3 times and then park rangers stopping at the camp to check the vehicles 4-5 times a day when we stayed for 3 nights feels like overkill.  Expect to run into a park ranger often and see their trucks driving pass your site like clockwork. 

Aside from that, our stay was very nice. We stayed at campsite 8 which was very nice for a big family. There’s no one behind you or to either side of you. The site easily accommodated our 32ft RV and the camp site could host 3+ tents. It’s close to the playground which was finally open! It rained heavily one night and flooded the back road behind the playground but they had the tractor out fixing this quickly.  

If you’re coming for fishing, get there and grab a spot before 7am for your best chance of catching something. My husband caught two the day we left. It’s very packed and usually stays that way until about 5-6pm. One of the park rangers did mention that we had a better chance fishing the stream beside the campsites and did find a family that caught several fish that way so that’s much more private and easier, especially for little kids or if you don’t like crowds. 