Water Canyon Campground

Stayed here on our way to the VLA. We arrived on a friday night around 5pm and had several spots available but slowly filled up.

Everyone was nice and courteous. Bathrooms were cleaned and had trash receptacle outside. Some sites are larger than others.

The road wasn't terrible but we only camped here in a jeep/tent. (not our RV) We say several short trailers made the road just fine. Wouldn't recommend for larger RVs.

We had no cell service on our verizon devices.

Road: is rough as other's have stated and have wash out areas. Just before starting the last 1/4 mile there is a sign "not suitable for trailers". We have a 20ft trailer and decided to give it a go. It bounced quite a bit and we did have things fall out of cabinets. However, once there it was quite nice. It appears the site and perhaps road is getting rehabbed. Large piles of gravel in some camp sites. Info board notice says there is a proposal to begin charging for site for camping.in 2023.

Environment: In October, very quiet. Only 3 or 4 campers total per night.

Hikes: North creek, we walked but could not find a trail. This creek is easily accessed just past the group area. Copper Creak we found be taking a primitive road just before the campground entrance. this road eventually follows alongside the stream and finally crosses it. At that point an old mining camp is seen just up the hill. We chose to follow the other side of the stream back and eventually came to a primary FR 235 and took it it back to camp. About 3.5 miles total. Finally, there is a Picnic area with a Nature trail that is close the stream. It is overgrown, yet still can be followed. TONS of birds.

Beautiful small free campground but it’s not for long, tall, heavy rigs. I found one of maybe two campsite that I would fit in. Steep, tight road up to the campground. If you try have 4 wheel drive and years of experience working through tight areas. Once you start up there’s no place to turn around until the top or at the bottom of the campground. The stabilizer jack scraped on one curve going in and out. I have the bumper extended out and it dragged.

I had no Verizon cell signal in the campground.

This is a nice campground but very basic. There are a couple of clean restrooms (vault toilets) but that is it. Each site has a table and fire pit but most were not level and some did not have a tent spot. It seems to be used on a regular basis but easy to miss on the road up... as soon as you see the Water Canyon campground sign you turn off the road on a little dirt road going uphill. We missed it the first time.
I don't think we would return there except to tent camp. That road is pretty bumpy and rutted.
There are several nice hiking trails in the area which is the only reason for us to return.

My stay here overlapped with the previous reviewer, so I'm not going to repeat a lot of the same things. It rained heavily on the evening of July 2nd, and the 1/4 mile dirt access road to the campground is in pretty bad shape. I would be VERY careful about going up there without a 4WD vehicle at the moment. I was able to get up okay on Friday afternoon with an AWD SUV pulling a small trailer, but after that night's rains, the trip back down was pretty hairy. Hopefully, the USFS folks bring a Bobcat in and do some maintenance on it soon.

4.5 miles paved road with a short section of dirt. Going straight into the surrounding mountains covered with trees. Very lush coming from the sparce land of the plateau. While the campground starts right at the end of the road, you actually need to drive 1/4 miles up the dirt road to get to the sites loop. The access is rough with pot holes and some deep ruts and some bigger rocks.
If raining, I would not try to go up. I kept the momentum with my 7000lbs van, chose my line and made it fine. There was one other fellow there. Great views on the mountains. Each site has a table, bench and fire pit. Very spacious. Very quiet and peaceful. Pit toilet was very clean with ample toilet paper. Stll free until 2022 when it will be $10.00 per night per site. I suggest you walk the dirt road first to guess if alright for your vehicle. There is a tight hairpin. Great experience and go check the next town of Magdalena. Super interesting. There is a gas station there. No water at the campground.

What a treat! Clean site, solid picnic tables, fire pit with grill, flat camping sites, multiple pit toilets, and a gorgeous view. This was a great campsite! The only downsides are 1) you probably need a 4x4 - it's a pretty steep dirt road climb at the end of the road into the campgrounds 2) not a lick of service. We had site 6 towards the back of the campground, and noticed that it was more protected from the windy night - the sites with the better views were QUITE windy. We were about to stay at another spot in San Antonio, and decided to drive over to this site to see how it was and put us closer to the Very Large Array - needless to say we fell in love with it! Wished we'd had time to stay a couple more nights.

25 miles east of Socorro and 4.5 miles down a sometimes paved road takes you to one of the quietest campgrounds we’ve visited lately. The campground is reached by following a rutted and somewhat washed out dirt road uphill to the right of the entrance. I engaged 4WD as the road was moderately steep with loose gravel and a few rocks and I didn’t want to spin out hauling our fully loaded 25 foot travel trailer up it. Once in the campground we saw only one other camper with a tent driving a newer standard run of the mill SUV. A quick run through brought us back to the first campsite at the top where we had plenty of room to park without unhooking. We hung out with drinks in hand in our easy chairs by the cement picnic table and let the two cats wander on leashes around the area. As the sun set the temperature dropped to a pleasant upper 60s. By morning it was chilly. Coyotes chattering down canyon were the only sounds all night long.

The campsite shows a fair amount of neglect. While the restrooms were very clean and odorless (yay) the sites showed damage from heavy downpours that must have hit the area some time ago. Repairs need to be done to roads and landscaping and fire pits could be cleaner. That said, it was still a pleasure to stay there because it was so quiet!

The short access road (~100 yards) was badly washed/rutted but managed to tiptoe my Accord in there w/o dragging. A camper in the adjoining group camp came by to borrow a match and marveled that I was able to get a sedan up it. Only a few sites have level tent pads but we managed to get one of those as there was only one other camper there, a delightful middle-aged hippie there to collect pine nuts. He came over to introduce himself, and make sure his dog wasn't bothering us (he wasn't), after his very well behaved dog came over and tried to give us the sad-eye panhandle as we snacked on beef jerky. Perfectly quiet campground - no boomboxes, RV generators, road noise. Wonderful view of moon rise over cliffs from our tent window. "It don't get no better than this" - unless they run a grader up the access road. A neat Vinegaroon wandered by our tent one evening, no stinger but they spray acetic acid (vinegar) if disturbed. Bosque del Apache NWR is nearby and worth a visit during waterfowl migrations.