Best Tent Camping in New Mexico

Visited the coal mine campground after driving a 500 mile day, so it was a set-up eat and crash situation. I did make a reservation on line, but that cost more than the $5 per site fee and was not necessary even though it was memorial day weekend. The fee is great because it is primitive, no electricity, no water at all, not just hookups, but the bathrooms were nice and clean with no sinks.

If you are prepared for a primitive camp with your own water and batteries for your electronics it is great. They have fire rings, grills, picnic tables and level places for tents.There are also nice back-in sites for boondocking RVs and the road up to the campground is fine for big rigs.

I ran into two mountain biker's here from Ireland that were riding the Continental Divide trail from The Mexican border in New Mexico to the Canadian border in Montana. They were staying here since the Trail goes through here. Paddy & Conner were very interesting people and I was fortunate to have run into them here.

I enjoyed my stay with a peaceful quite nights sleep and a short hike in the morning before breakfast cooked on the campfire. I would recommend this over a hotel stay if your passing through Grant's New Mexico on I40. You can probably get a site for the night anytime your passing through.

We tent camped at Aguirre Spring campground over Father’s Day weekend in June 2022. I don’t know. Maybe it was too hot or I was too tired, or a combination of both with a causal connection. I love the outdoors but I can’t really think of anything good or bad to write about this campground.

It seemed like a nice place and the vault toilet bathroom was clean and extremely stocked with TP. There is a great trail called pine tree loop from which you can actually see real pine trees on the mountainside above the barren desert basin. We fell victim to the one-way road that other campers bemoaned too. The camp host’s phone is 575-644-9143 (as announced on the BLM’s voicemail greeting) and he was helpful when I called ahead and told me the campground was open (as of 6/22/2022, the Dyrt has an alert that the campground is closed for the season), that there was plenty of space, and that there was a fire ban.

We pitched our tent without the rain fly. Right when we layed down for the night, it started raining, so we scrambled to overlay the rain fly and then the rain stops. In the middle of a desert drought, if such a thing is a thing. The tent pad barely accommodated our 6-person tent and it seemed like all the sites suffered the same fate. We scouted the whole campground, mainly searching for shade and settled on a decent site with a giant boulder on the western side for some evening shade. The campground was maybe 1/3 full. Overall it was good to get outdoors for father’s day despite the fatigue.

We arrived early on a Tuesday and snagged a tree heavy site on the upper loop. The sites on the outside of the loops are decently wooded, smaller and not well suited to RVs. The sites on the inside of the loops have longer, RV sized pull in and little trees. Vault toilets are well maintained by the very active camp host, Mark. There is potable water from a well two miles down the mountain and trash, but packing out much that can’t be burned is encouraged. Pick up firewood in Pecos, there is enough dead & down tinder at the site. Dogs allowed on leash at all times, quite time begins at 10pm. The closer we got to the weekend, the more crowded and noisy the site became. One night, multiple campers arrived after dark and noisily set up camp. I’m sure the state parks being closed forced more people into the National Forest, but it’s a great site. There are several trailhead and just down the hill is easy access to creeks and fishing. We had great weather, upper 70’s during the day, dipping to low 50’s overnight. Each site has large fire rings with cooking grates and at least one picnic table, some with two. Sites are close together so try to grab one at the end of the loop for a little privacy.

We tent camped at Eagle Lake aka Eagle Creek campground on the Mescalero Apache Reservation over Memorial Day weekend 2022. The surrounding Lincoln National Forest was closed because of extreme fire risk, so there were very few places to camp in the Sacramento Mountains and escape the heat of El Paso. We used camp stoves because of a fire ban. We camped among the pine trees in the first tent area. There were clean porta-johns in that area. The showers and permanent bathroom were located up in the RV park about a 3-mile round trip walk on the road from the first tent area, so it’s more practical to drive to the showers. The permanent bathrooms and showers were clean.

Very pretty scenery, surrounded by mountain ridges and peaks and pine forest. There were two small lakes and a small creek flowing through the campground.

The campground format is kind of laissez faire because there aren’t assigned sites and it’s first come, first serve. The first tent area seemed about half full and we found a good site. We didn’t scout the second tent area because the host said there weren’t as many trees there. The first tent site was developed on a forested slope albeit they built flat rectangular-like terraces into the slope where you can pitch a tent(s) and park your vehicle(s).

Eagle Creek, near Ruidoso, had a similar feel to the Mescalero Nation’s Silver Lake campground near Cloudcroft, but Eagle Creek had a more quiet vibe. The main drawback was the 10:00 am checkout time, but we were still able to cook up some breakfast burritos as we broke camp. Good times.

Update 6/22/2022: At some point after my review, the Dyrt deleted the actual campground, which is where the road forks and moved my review to the nearby and similarly named RV resort, which is totally different. I love the Dyrt and I’m a pro ranger but sometimes c’mon man.

Brown Springs OHV Campground : (Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good

(71 yr olds in 17’ trailer.)

Overall Rating: 4.5 Price 2024: $ Free Security: No, though patrolled Usage during visit: 3/4s Site Privacy: Dispersed junipers Site Spacing: Good Pad surface: Gravel Reservations: No Campground Noise: No Outside Road Noise: If there are OHVs then there will be a lot. Through Traffic in campground: No Electric Hookup: No Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: No Potable Water Available: No Generators: Allowed Bathroom: Pit toilets , moderately clean Showers: No Cell Service (AT&T): 4 bars Setting: amongst rolling hills, juniper and sagebrush Recent Weather: 70s Solar: Great Insects: None during our stay Host: No Rig Size: Large Sites: All 9 or so sites are nice w covered picnic tables.

This was our first time at this lovely National Monument and we simply loved it. The campground was small with only a few spaces for bigger rigs, but we fit without any problem. Love those small spaces! 

The campground is perched on the mesa above the monument’s protected dwellings, artifacts and trails at the valley. You can get there by walking about 2.5 miles from the campground along a stunning trail, or driving around the road. We simply loved hiking here, choosing a different way each day over the four days we were there.  So much to explore!

Campsites have the standard picnic table, bear box locker, and fire ring. The trees were mostly shorter scrub junipers and other high desert trees so there was lots of sunshine for solar powered rig, but no electrical service at any sites.  Nice privacy between sites.

The bathrooms were clean, heated, and had flush toilets and running sinks with potable water, plus a small dish cleaning sink, but no showers. 

The Visitor Center is an awesome CCC structure from back during the depression as are many of the hiking trails in the valley.   We were here for Halloween, so carved our pumpkins in memory and celebration of the people who lived here so many years ago.

Nearby Los Alamos has all the services you need as far as supplies, services and restaurants. But if you can plan your hike to end before 4pm, the cafe at the VC is really worth it!!