Fernand de Taos Dispersed Camping
Carson National Forest
Write a Review FR-5 Angel Fire, NM 87710 575-758-6200 Official WebsiteGPS: 36.4225, -105.3423
Overview of Fernand de Taos Dispersed Camping
Accessibility is not guaranteed, always scout ahead before driving down dirt roads.
Learn more: Boondocking 101
Last Price Paid: $0
Reported by camper-829584 on 8/9/2023
Longest RV Reported: 34 feet (Class A)
Reported by Outdoor Girl on 9/18/2018
Pad Type grass
Open Seasonally May to Oct
Elevation 8,923 ft / 2,719 m
Max Stay 14
Tent Camping Yes
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Q&A - Ask the Community about Fernand de Taos Dispersed Camping
To ask questions of the owner or manager please contact the campground directly. (575) 758-6200
Reviews of Fernand de Taos Dispersed Camping 24 people have reviewed this location.
“Great views, busy road, dusty, rodents”
Reviewed 7/20/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 5 |
RV Length: | 31' (Class C) |
Loved the view, but it is a very popular spot for ATV's and motorcyclists. And mountain bikers. At least the mountain bikes are quiet. Road dust was an issue. Verizon had a steady 3 bars of 3G, but ZERO data, not even one byte. I did manage to make a phone call, but had to walk around outside and repeat myself a lot. AT&T got one bar o... more
Loved the view, but it is a very popular spot for ATV's and motorcyclists. And mountain bikers. At least the mountain bikes are quiet. Road dust was an issue. Verizon had a steady 3 bars of 3G, but ZERO data, not even one byte. I did manage to make a phone call, but had to walk around outside and repeat myself a lot. AT&T got one bar of LTE if we put the phone near the upper cabover window. Otherwise, not much.
For the first few days we thought it was fun to see a hillside full of prairie dogs and a creek area full of ground squirrels. We didn't think this through. Hundreds of rodents we could see, but what about the ones we *couldn't* see. Well we finally saw them, underneath the van seats, looking out at us, wondering when we were going to bed so they could chew the hell out of everything.
And they did. Those f**king mice chewed every piece of paper and plastic they could find, drained a bag of lentils (almost a cup!) and shit all over our counters and in the kitchen sinks and drawers. The next night we killed one with a trap, the other one went back home and lived to tell the tale. We left the day after that, having lost battery power due to a couple of cloudy days.
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Please don't tell anybody”
Reviewed 7/15/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 3 |
Site Number: | Wide Open |
RV Length: | 27' |
Best boon docking in NM [so far]. We stayed about 'mid meadow' inside the west tree line...1.9 Miles up FR 5. Lot's of great RV friendly places along this road. When we drove out, counted over 24 sites [but you wouldn't know it]. Great hikes, cool nights...absolutely amazing place. Verizon was "OK" 2-3 bar 3G. Got the job done.... more
Best boon docking in NM [so far].
We stayed about 'mid meadow' inside the west tree line...1.9 Miles up FR 5. Lot's of great RV friendly places along this road. When we drove out, counted over 24 sites [but you wouldn't know it]. Great hikes, cool nights...absolutely amazing place.
Verizon was "OK" 2-3 bar 3G. Got the job done. Better reception if you walk up the very steep hill :-).
Bob&Susan Travel would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Great spot”
Reviewed 6/19/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 1 |
Plenty of places to set up. Was pretty busy but we kept driving further up to a spot. Free roam cattle was a trip! Go for it
Swan would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Good access, nice setting”
Reviewed 6/12/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 1 |
Site Number: | First on right |
RV Length: | 20' (Class B) |
There were several other campers here so we ended up at the first camping site on the right as you drive in. It was not extremely level but we made it work. Some traffic in and out but not bad. The road into the area is of good quality.
WanderingWakes.Net would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Beautiful Place!”
Reviewed 6/3/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 2 |
Site Number: | The Meadow |
This place is beautiful! The road is narrow, but well maintained until after the meadow. Some deep ruts made with a vehicle after the recent rains made it impassable for my 34’ Class A Winnebago pulling my car. Keep in mind, there is really no place to turn around except some of the pull-out campsites (they were all occupied when I... more
This place is beautiful! The road is narrow, but well maintained until after the meadow. Some deep ruts made with a vehicle after the recent rains made it impassable for my 34’ Class A Winnebago pulling my car.
Keep in mind, there is really no place to turn around except some of the pull-out campsites (they were all occupied when I went through, so just kept going). I had to unhook at the meadow and decided to pull into a spot at the meadow with people on each side of me; each about 30-40 ft. away from either side of my rig. One family left the next day. I wasn’t expecting to need to go down FR5 so far to find a spot, but it was only for a couple nights and I enjoyed it.
The spot I pulled into was relatively level, but don’t expect to use your auto-leveling system because the slopes are still too much. I got my rig as level as I could manually adjusting the hydraulic jacks.
I would say this would be a perfect spot except there were too many people for my preference. Many of the spots closest to the road were taken (on a Wednesday at 2pm). There were some very rowdy, disrespectful campers about .25 miles away and I heard them shouting and partying quite a bit. I get that we have more freedom to get wild in the wild, but when we are in close proximity to others, be mindful.
On that note, I also found an abandoned fire ring that had a lot of broken glass and trash. WTH people! Let’s protect our natural resources, shall we?
I took a hike and found an unused road on the protected land. I found a small boulder to climb and some beautiful wild flowers. Birds were chirping in every tree. Lots of hummingbirds.
Bring some natural bug spray. The mosquitos are about as big as the hummingbirds. 🤣
Overall, this place is majestic!
EJ would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Amazing”
Reviewed 5/22/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 8 |
RV Length: | 26' (Travel Trailer) |
We scoped this out on a Friday and it was pretty crowded but in talking to a lot of the people we met seemed they were all there for the weekend. We came back on Monday and there were just a few people here. Lovely and serene but it can be a bit windy. Follow the road all they way till you get to the big meadow. That's where we c... more
We scoped this out on a Friday and it was pretty crowded but in talking to a lot of the people we met seemed they were all there for the weekend. We came back on Monday and there were just a few people here.
Lovely and serene but it can be a bit windy. Follow the road all they way till you get to the big meadow. That's where we camped. The road past there is very rutty, we watched lots of people drive in and turn around at that point. Good cell signal, even better boosted. Very popular on the weekends. Get there Monday thru Friday morning for the good spots.
Bob&Nicolette would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“on the way to Taos”
Reviewed 7/20/2019
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 1 |
Nice forest camping, and not too far off the hwy.... We stayed here early July 2019... The forest road is in good condition, but it is a bit narrow, so keep an eye out for oncoming traffic, because there are a few spots towards the beginning of the road that do not have a turnout to allow traffic to pass. There are several spots to cam... more
Nice forest camping, and not too far off the hwy.... We stayed here early July 2019... The forest road is in good condition, but it is a bit narrow, so keep an eye out for oncoming traffic, because there are a few spots towards the beginning of the road that do not have a turnout to allow traffic to pass. There are several spots to camp on the right along the first half mile of the road. We stayed in one of those. It does seem like the free roaming cows frequent this area a bit more than they might further up the road, but they don't bother us. Not much for cell service (AT&T)... seemed like intermittent 3g that came and went with the wind.
jglow would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
Reviewed 6/8/2019
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 2 |
Beautiful sites that are clean and have stone fire rings. Most spots have some tree cover but I did notice a few without a very level surface for tents. It was cold at night (33°) but the morning sun warmed it up quickly. Many site are fairly easy to get into and most of the road is smooth — but the end is rutted and muddy in some ... more
Beautiful sites that are clean and have stone fire rings. Most spots have some tree cover but I did notice a few without a very level surface for tents. It was cold at night (33°) but the morning sun warmed it up quickly.
Many site are fairly easy to get into and most of the road is smooth — but the end is rutted and muddy in some spots. There are also a couple logging roads that require 4WD. I’m on a adventure motorcycle and little of it was challenging.
JLondon would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Absolutely loved it!”
Reviewed 9/22/2018
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 13 |
Site Number: | n/a |
The road in is well graded with several pull off spots in case you meet oncoming traffic. There are several spots off the road. Once you near the end of the road, it gets a little rutted out and quite muddy if it's been raining, but if you can make it, there's some really nice spots back there. Although there’s many old logging roads ... more
The road in is well graded with several pull off spots in case you meet oncoming traffic. There are several spots off the road. Once you near the end of the road, it gets a little rutted out and quite muddy if it's been raining, but if you can make it, there's some really nice spots back there. Although there’s many old logging roads and old FS roads, we learned from the Game Warden that you are not supposed to camp more than 300 ft. from the road. Even though there aren't signs, apparently it's a protected area and you're not supposed to drive across the meadow. We camped by the big meadow near the end of the road - beautiful spot. There is some traffic, but it's not too bad. It seems many van-lifers pull in for a night or two, then move on. We were there over Labor Day and it was sort of busy, but not annoyingly so. There's a herd of about 50 cattle roaming through the meadows. They did munch their way into our site a couple of mornings - drove the dog nuts! We heard some elk, but didn't see any. We had cell service, but there's isn't service at all the spots. We didn't see any water in the creek, even after daily rains. The hiking is great – there are so many old roads and trails. It would be great for mountain biking, too. Overall, quite a clean spot, except for lots of toilet paper behind trees. Ladies, can we please just stop it?! It takes forever to disintegrate and it’s gross.
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Ok”
Reviewed 9/18/2018
Days stayed: | 2 |
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RV Length: | 34' (Class A) |
Quiet and secluded. Many cow pies and the cows appeared our first night. Ranger said they remove them in September. We were 1.5 miles up and after that the road had deep ruts. The road curved at about 2 miles where there was a fence and private property. The further up the road you go the better cell signal you get. Many spots for tent... more
Quiet and secluded. Many cow pies and the cows appeared our first night. Ranger said they remove them in September. We were 1.5 miles up and after that the road had deep ruts. The road curved at about 2 miles where there was a fence and private property. The further up the road you go the better cell signal you get. Many spots for tents an RV’s.
Outdoor Girl would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
“Picnic, hike and nap”
Reviewed 10/2/2020
Nightly rate: | FREE! |
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Days stayed: | 1 |
Site Number: | 0 |
We didn’t camp, just spent the day hiking, picnicking and napping. Absolutely beautiful area with lush trees, cool mountains air. Elevation was 9100 feet. We will camp next time.
Teresa Breese would stay here again
This review is the opinion of a Campendium member and not of Campendium.com
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Zennie (Uphill Zen)
New Mexico free camping - Boondocking FR5, Carson Forest
Who knew New Mexico was so green? This isn't just photoshop, either -- this gorgeous boondocking spot really does look like this! 🙂 If you're looking for a camping spot with cool...
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Amenities
Hookups
- dry camping
- Dispersed Camping
Recreation
- OHV
Site Amenities
- fire ring
Pets
- pets
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