Mesa Campground

Level site. Water spigots in different areas of the campground. Inner loop has electric. Outer loop does not. We stayed on outer loop. There were no inner loop spots available when we arrived. Looks like folks stay for at least a week at a time as their camps were well established. First come, first served basis. One mens, one womens bathroom one flush toilet each. No showers. Trash dumpster. Camp host. The old dump station has been closed and cemented shut. We visited Gila dwellings and the local Gila hot springs. NO cell service, Had to drive almost into Mimbres to get signal.

Spent a lot of time tent and pop-up camping growing up around here at the Lake Roberts campgrounds. Although the Mesa campground is a first (we typically stayed at the Upper End Campground of Lake Roberts), we picked this campsite due to having water and electric services. The campsites are nicely spread out and plentiful, although it was pretty busy and sites went quickly as soon as parties left. We didn't have cell service at all, so it makes it challenging to connect with family who were coming to meet us at the camp. As we did in the past, you'll eventually be found. :) The access road to campground is beautiful and windy, just be sure to go through Mimbres and not Pinos Altos if you're coming from Silver City, the latter way is very windy and mostly uphill, hard on those brakes.

During the week, Mesa Campground was peaceful, quiet, & beautiful. Only a handful of campers. Over the weekends, however, the campground was busy. Electric/water hookups available at only some sites. Several dry camp sites overlook the lake or a pretty little meadow. The camp host was very nice & worked hard to keep the campground & bathrooms clean. Unfortunately, many of the weekend campers left their garbage & dog feces everywhere. Hubby & I spent an hour picking up garbage by the lake and another hour picking up trash & dog feces in the campground. Camp host said it took him 8 hours to clean the bathrooms following Easter weekend & 5 hours the following weekend. (Don’t people take pride in their public spaces anymore?)
We enjoyed hiking the trails within a few miles of the campground, the trail around the lake, and watching the beautiful sunsets over Lake Roberts. This is one of our favorite stops so far.
There is no cell service within about 25 miles (although we heard a Verizon customer was able to get service in Mimbres, about 10 miles away).

We camped here in late January and when we arrived there was only one other camper who left that same day, so we had the place to ourselves. The campground is set on top of a mesa off of the 35 with views overlooking Lake Roberts. The sites are well-kept with picnic tables and fire rings. They do turn the water off during the winter, so there are no showers, which was fine with us, but may be a problem for other campers.

We'll echo the other reviews, in that it is not a wise idea to take any RV on highway 15 and the best way to approach the campground is from the south on 35.

The cliff dwellings are about 45 minutes away and definitely worth checking out. Also, there is a hotsprings resort on the way to the National Monument and they only charge $5 to soak in their three pools.

There is absolutely NO cell service here.

We had a great stay here!

If you are coming from Deming, NM on US 180, watch for the turn onto NM 61, then a short stretch of NM 152, and then take NM 35 to the lake. Don't be tempted by NM 15, even if your GPS says to go that way, it is full of hairpin turns and steep grades. Check it out on google maps before you start. I noticed that (on my unit, at least), the road was very noisy, almost like driving on mud / snow tires.

We stayed for 3 nights / 4 days at Mesa campground in late September. Had rain one afternoon, made for marvelous sunset that evening. No host present the days we were there, but a ranger drove thru a couple a times a day to eyeball things. Lavatories were kept up nicely, but no showers, as someone else mentioned. Lots of shady trees, not so many tall pines around the campground. No shelters at sites, but all have a table and fire ring, most have a grill on a post also. Plenty of (tall) grass and there were MANY yellow flowers around the trees which gave my wife fits with allergies / sneezing, the only unpleasantness we encountered. I took off one star for access, because it is quite a drive to reach.

Most (maybe all) of the sites on the inside of the loop have power and water, but no drains. There is a dump station near the exit along with a dumpster for trash rather than cans at each site. With fresh water coming in (but not going out), watch your holding tanks accordingly. We pulled out at noon on Saturday and all the hookup sites had filled up by dark on Friday. There are plenty of no hookup sites, so you can probably find one of those and wait for someone to leave and grab their site. Our site was fairly level, but some appeared to have significant slope to my eye, sometimes an issue for motor homes. Also, most are not super deep, perhaps 35 or 40 ft.

The campground is well above the lake, but I was able to walk down a moderately smoothed path to reach the shoreline in 15 - 20 minutes. There is a well kept path around the shore on the campground side. However, our next door neighbors told us the path is not passable all the way round the lake due to swampy conditions at the inlet end, so I did not try it myself. Bugs were not too bad, mostly flies rather than mosquitoes. We saw two deer wander thru the (empty) camp host site.

Mesa is a great place to stay and get away from outside influences. BTW, that includes NO wireless / cell service. The little country store in the village of Lake Roberts nearby has a landline phone and computer you can use for a fee in the event of an emergency. We were nearly 20 miles from the campground on the way home before we had any signal on the phone. If you're a TV addict, you will need a satellite dish (or DVD's).

Dry camped two nights in Mesa campground. Site 4 nice enough for Saturday night pickings. Moved Sunday when campground cleared out to site 15 for nice view of Lake Roberts. We got to watch helicopters bucket water out of the lake (to fight a fire that didn't impact us at all) so that was different and interesting. We enjoyed two peaceful nights rest in typical spring high desert weather. Can't beat those clear warm breezy days and cool nights. Camp hosts friendly. Most sites big rig friendly but not quite level so bring some boards if that's a priority. Electric/water sites inside loop and back in. Dry camping sites outside loop are more pull-up than pull through. Really designed for tenters to walk gear into sites. Nice tables, many shaded by mature junipers, plus fire rings and grill stands. Clean flush toilets. Convenient dump station. Not much room for improvement.