San Antonio Riverine Park

Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is a bird nerd’s paradise during the winter.  Snow Geese, Sandhill Cranes, and thousands of others congregate in this wetland wonderland. Here, the Rio Grande pauses on its long winding path to the Gulf of Mexico and allows these waterfowl and other migratory birds a place of rest and safety during their bi-annual migration. It’s an amazing place, but it does not allow camping within the park. 

Just a few miles to the north of the visitor’s center, in the quaint hamlet of San Antonio, lies Riverine Park. Slightly difficult to find in the dark and with a steep entrance, the few campsite spots offer visitors a great place close to the National Wildlife Refuge for the night within striking distance of the dawn patrol show (when the flocks take off for the day). Dawn and dusk are something to behold, so get your cameras ready! 

The campsites themselves are loosely defined, but a few actually have developed campfire pits and picnic tables. There are no toilets here, but there are lovely facilities in the park itself.  There’s not much room for a trailer longer than 20 feet, but feel free to give it a looksee before committing to the downhill entry point– which is short and steep.  With big cottonwood trees scattered throughout the area, we got some solar charging with our rooftop panels, but needed to move our portable solar panel around to collect a bit more.  Starlink worked well though!

In addition to birdwatching there are numerous, unlabeled trails and access roads all along the river bank and the canal for walking, or biking. The opportunities can also be found within the wildlife refuge as well.  Nearby services can be found in San Antonio, Socorro, or Truth or Consequences, NM, with the latter being the biggest town within an hour’s drive.

Really a pretty cool spot that can be warmer than Albuquerque, and especially warmer than Santa Fe. 100% no fire, even smoking banned they claim. May help keep numbers low. Only person I saw appeared to be road construction exploring where the road went (think they were working on Rio grande bridge maybe). Lots and lots of space in the big trees by the river, but if you look in there at night with a flash light you may notice a lot of spider eyes shining back at you. I actually parked right by river, probably not exactly correct spot probably (would be very tight fit with trailer). No spider eyes. Plenty of room for car/truck to turn around. Probably stayed 3 nights total. The turn offs from the braised berm down to camp areas can be steep looking, just choose your angle wisely. The roads seem to loop back up to berm after winding through trees, some tighter areas to maneuver around for sure. I doubt anyone would give you trouble sleeping on the unpaved road itself opposite side of trees either. Very little traffic. Weekends may have some local traffic non overnight traffic too, fishing, skeet shooting, etc. Based on debris around river, and the most traffic I saw was on Sunday (2 -3 trucks at once rather than 1/48hours.

I’d crash here again for the price.