Black Canyon Campground

This Forest Service Campground is less than ten miles from the Santa Fe Plaza and is, thus, very popular and very busy. It should be noted that about half of this distance is on a somewhat steep, but very good road. Most of the sites are reservable, and are reserved well in advance, but there are some hard-to-get, first-come sites. The campground is smaller and the sites are fairly close together, but the vegetative undercover gives some visual separation, and, during our stay, it was fairly quiet except for the several generators that often make there presence known during the evenings. Generator hours, if there are any, seem to be very generous. It would certainly be nice to have generator-free zones. The campground has very nice tree cover and, because of the elevation, is cool even during mid summer.

The campsites are well laid out with a picnic table and fire ring and well-designed tent sites. There are water spigots throughout but none were able to provide water during our stay. It is unclear whether there will be water available in the future, but, during our stay we had to haul in any water that we needed. There is no dump station in the campground, but next door, at the State Park, there is a dump station open at times, for a charge of $10 per use. The dump station has the gates closed, but can be accessed, after paying the fee at the park, by simply sliding open the latches on the gates. There are vault toilets, but you will want a mask to use them, not because of COVID, but because of the gag-producing odor. You will need a strong stomach to frequent these facilities. This is a real shame in an otherwise nice campground. It is not really that hard to keep toilets like these clean and decent smelling.

There are camp hosts, but on a busy Friday night when we arrived, they were no where to be seen and were not much of a presence in the campground. They do provide a greeting of a really trashed-up campsite and a beware of dog sign. This is another indictment of the poor Forest Service management and rather sad since this could be such a very nice campground if well managed.

There is no cell service with Verizon in the Campground.

There is a nice two-mile loop hike that can be accessed directly from the campground and several other hikes that are available in the State Park next door. In addition, there are several nice hikes nearby in the National Forest.

Even with the several criticisms noted above, this is a nice campground and well worth a visit. Just plan well in advance with reservations or get very lucky with a first-come site.

We absolutely loved this campground. We had come from a hot and dusty dispersed site and were thrilled to find this. There are quite a few first come sites and we felt lucky to get a good one on a Sunday morning (there were several available). There are quite a few sites that work for a travel trailer. Ours is only 19 feet but we did see some bigger rigs up here (road is a little tight). It is in the trees, nicely shaded but our site got enough sun to power our solar. Cool and very quiet at night. Some generator noise during the day. A quick drive to Santa Fe. The sites are very big, well maintained, and ours had two picnic tables and a nice fire ring area. There is no water and no signal.

This is a lovely spot, beautiful tall pine trees. There is NO AT&T or T-Mobile, requires a 15 minute drive at least in either direction. Noise carries in this campground so using generators isn't ideal. It gets quite chilly at night even in October (elevation) so be prepared for that. It's a mix of FCFS and reservation sites, quite full most likely due to everything else in NM being closed. Better for small rigs.

Overall this is a very nice campground, despite the fact that there is no running water. There are plenty of vault toilets that were fairly clean and had no issues. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a very busy campground. I arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and all of the first come first served spots were taken and all of the reserved spots were reserved. However, after returning later in the day, I found a free first come site and was able to make camp. Make sure you have a back-up plan if you are going to try and get one of these spots. Next time I will definitely make reservations.

Some sites are more private than others. There are some sites that are completely exposed with no privacy at all while there are some that are very private. The most private sites i saw were #13, #24 and #29.

Pros:
Beautiful campground nestled among pine trees
Plenty of firewood around for sites on the outside of the loop, none in the inside sites
Very nice trail from the rear of the canyon, great for hiking
Plenty of toilet and garbage facilities
Picnic table and fire ring in every site

Cons:
No running water
Difficult to get the first come first serve sites due to popularity
No Verizon service at all. Need to drive about 15 minutes towards Santa Fe to get back into range.

There are 30 paved sites available. Many are spaced close together but there are a few that are more private. Reservations can be made online for some sites sites during May 1 - Oct 1 and the remaining sites are first-come, first-served. The camp host was not friendly and seemed annoyed when I asked about checking in (also, they did not sell firewood). The campground has pit toilets and the water was not available during my stay. There are no electric campsites and limited solar opportunity with most sites being heavy to moderate shade (some would allow a few hours of overhead sun). The campsites have a picnic table and a fire pit with grill. Even though this campground is only 15 minutes to downtown Santa Fe, Verizon had no service in August of 2019 (but there was a pay phone at the front of the campground).

Favorite campsites:
- 24 - Private but close to a hiking trail. Close to bathrooms, heavy shade, back in.
- 18 - A tight fit for my 15’ trailer and two vehicles. Close to bathrooms, heavy shade, back in.
- 27 - One of the widest spots. Heavy shade, back in.
- 13 - Moderate shade, back in.

We stayed one night here in June, 2020. Just wanted to get out of hot Albuquerque and into the mountains for some cooler hiking and cooler air in general. Because of the ongoing pandemic, campgrounds at State Parks were still closed, so the National Forest campgrounds offered the only real option for something close to home. Black Canyon really fit the bill. It took us about 90 minutes to get to our site from our RV storage facility in Albuquerque. It's in the mountains, on the road to the ski area. Not quite as high as the State Park, but still out of the "pinion/juniper" mix you get in the hills of NM and up into Aspen and Pine territory.

The sites here have no facilities. There are a couple of vault toilets, which smelled pretty bad when we walked by them. A couple of very primitive looking water areas; no idea if they actually work (I've seen earlier reviews that imply they don't). I never saw anyone using them. And they have non-traditional connects, so if you want to try your luck and get water for your rig here, you'll need a Water Bandit.

The campground is well wooded. Campsites come in all shapes and sizes. Our rig is 29 feet, 3 inches, and we were in a spot that maxed out at 32 feet (per description on web site...Site 15). We barely fit. We saw very few sites that could have accommodate much more. I don't think any site would have been able to handle more than 35 feet. Our little Thor Hurricane 27B was the only Class A we saw on site, and the place was pretty packed. Lots of tent camping. (Our pad was narrow enough that back in took more than one try. And there was no space for bringing out the awning. The fire pit area and such were BEHIND the rig.)

It was very nice though and in the evening, the temps were fantastic. It was actually chilly enough that my wife had to put on a small wrap while we ate dinner outside.

At the end of the campgrounds is the entrance to the Black Canyon Trail. It's only about 1.3 miles, but for about .4 miles of it, there is considerable steepness. I wouldn't call it a workout, but it's not a totally whimpy trail and it was lovely. We saw lots of plant life and grabbed many nice photos. We went late in the afternoon (around 5:30) and NO ONE else was on the trail. The next morning, we hiked the nearby West Circle Trail on the State Park site, and that's a MUCH tougher trail. You go up 1000' in one mile, and it's an often rocky trail, so careful plodding is recommended. It's a nice trail too! Black Canyon Campground was just what the doctor ordered. Unless, you want/need cell service or wifi. We had read there was no mobile service and they weren't kidding. Over the air TV doesn't come in either, and even radio stations were spotty at best. No problem for us.

(By the way, less than 20 yards from the entrance to the campground, the National Forest ends and the Hyde Memorial State Park begins. And another 50 yards up from there is the State Park RV dump station. Right now, IT IS CLOSED. Don't plan to dump there. In fact, finding a place to dump anywhere in Santa Fe is a tall order.)

Beautiful sites. I managed to find one that was open, I think that is lucky.

They have faucets. NO water.

Most spots not level. Nice picnic tables in site. There are bathrooms.

FYI Santa Fe has only one dump site it is in the Los Suenos RV park. I think it is now called the Lofts. They were very nice.

If you are coming through Las Vegas, NM stop at the Love's travel stop and dump there.

We had an incredible stay at this campground. It was so hard to believe that Santa Fe was only 15 minutes away!!!

We stayed at a walk-in campground (site #5) just off the road. It was the only site available for reservation at the time so we jumped on it. The campground was very busy that weekend; we were lucky to have it.

The individual campsites were wonderful! The setting for the walk-in sites was beautiful. Lots of trees, near a creek. Lots of birds and wildlife. So fun! The pads were asphalt with a concrete area surrounded by a beautiful brick wall. The tent pad was level and made of gravel. Nice picnic bench and fire pit included too.

There was quite of bit of noise from the road as we arrived on Saturday. That night was VERY busy. Lots of cars and lights in the woods. But Sunday night was much quieter. It was a beautiful place for sleeping. Even though there are lots of trees, there were breaks in the trees so we could see the stars through the net in our tent. So peaceful and beautiful Sunday night!

The only downside besides the weekend traffic sounds was the closest vault toilet was really smelly. It was summer after all (7/27-7/29) and it was next to the trailhead at the entrance of the campground. People didn't realize you had to close the door and the lid. Plus, I think it was just overwhelmed by the extra weekend hikers. Sometimes the smell drifted our way; thank goodness it was faint. When I needed the facilities, I just walked up to the next one up the campground road; it wasn't smelly.

Lots of hikes nearby... some within walking distance, some a short drive up the road. Lots of diversity even though you would think they would all be the same being in the same forest. That was not the case. Very enjoyable.

I would definitely stay here again. I would try for a campsite off the road if I were camping over the weekend, but otherwise, I would consider the walk-in again.