Cave Canyon Campground

Fort Stanton Cave Campground

Gate Location - 33.518177, -105.482712

Site Location - 33.503065, -105.493988

Our Length -
60 foot (travel trailer + tow vehicle). Also have a Flex as spare vehicle.

Road Conditions - graded road, few spots a little extra bumpy but saw a Honda civic drive down the road no issues

Length of Stay - 14 days

Max Length of Stay Permitted - 14 Days

What’s at the campground? 33.505878, -105.492321
Cave campground has 3 pull offs, covered picnic tables, fire pits, and bathrooms. On the cave campground road past these sites you do need a high clearance vehicle. The dispersed sites have established fire rings.

How many per site? At dispersed site location listed above- one fire ring and relatively flat. Our spot could hold 3 trailers and the spot next door held 4 horse trailers, 3 rvs, and vehicles.

Time/Distance to closest town - 33.545514, -105.572835
7.1 Miles / about 15 min to Capitan

Stores in Town - Dollar General - 33.545441, -105.585419, Family Dollar - 33.545699, -105.587380, Smokey’s Country Market - 33.545592, -105.571938

Fuel Options - Brewers - 33.545630, -105.579758
Offered Gas & Diesel - 1 diesel pump with ability to pull in with trailer attached

Water Access - Filtered water machine located on the side of Brewers fuel station.
Bulk potable water - FREE at the Rob Jagger Campground 5 min down the road located in day use pull in (free at time we camped)

Dump Access - 33.514383, -105.510785 - Rob Jagger campground- $30 cash

Trash - 33.514383, -105.510785 Recycling and dumpster FREE at Rob Jagger. Camp host asked if we could come and drop off instead of using cans in Cave Campground since we were there for more than 2 nights.

Propane - Family Dollar and Brewer gas station (it was $23 at FD and $30 at BG). At the time we were there Dollar General was 1 month old and said they were waiting on licensing for Tobacco and Propane

Food options -
OSO Grill 33.545488, -105.573019 - Open Daily
Smokey Bear Restaurant 33.545593, -105.576326 - Open Daily

Closest Large Town - Ruidoso is about 30-45 min away. Midtown is a great day trip. Multiple shopping options, souvenirs, local food. Does have a Walmart, Walgreens, Ace hardware, multiple restaurants and fast food options.

Internet/Cell Coverage - **DID NOT CAPTURE SPEED TEST**
T-Mobile- average service was 3G, with T-Mobile internet tower no issues working remote, watching streaming tv, and playing games on phones at the same time.

Weather - May 27-June 9. We had a few storms roll through, hail one day, but average temp was 80 and very little shade from trees- used our generators from 3-6pm every day to combat heat.

Wildlife - This is cougar country. We didn’t see any evidence during our stay. Did have Elk come close to camp early in the morning and overnight. We also saw rabbits, deer, and mice (got into tow vehicles and cars due to being parked for 2 weeks). Ant hills around and did have one instance of ant bites. Flys but no mosquitos.

Arrived after dark around 1 am to the cave campground. Was able to find a small pull through spot to fit just the truck and a tent on the right about 200 feet after open camp ground. Amazing spot to wake up to in the morning. A week later heading back through we decided to camp again due to the ease- again arrived in the dark. The spot was taken by a van so we had to drive around for an hour due to not seeing fire rings but plenty of open field areas. Ended up going to the right of the signs - not in cave campground. It’s a graded road that a 30 foot camper can easily go up. Investigate before going up as the turn around option may not be feasible. Ends at the top of a hill about half a mile down with a large camping area with 3 fire rings and a turn around area that had 2 more fire rings. Again- woke up to a gorgeous view. Will definitely try to make it there in the daylight to scout the best campground and watch a sunset.

Cave Campground is tucked back in the hills roughly 1.5 miles from US Rt 380. The dirt road in is washboard in spots, so a slow go is needed. The 3 sites are quiet and beautiful. At night you can hear the coyotes howling. There is a shelter for each site along with a trash can. There is also a pit toilet. We had a great Verizon signal.

There's not much to say about the campground that hasn't already been said. For motorhomes and big rigs, I think the only accessible campsites are the 3 in the campground.

The ones further up Cave Canyon Trail Road are more for vans and small trailers.

The campground is clean and quiet at night. There's some good hiking and mountain biking on the OHV trails behind the campground and you can hike or bike all the way to Fort Stanton.

The area is beautiful and we were lucky to get a campsite there.

If you follow the GPS and it brings you to the sign with Devil Canyon, turn around and let it take you the other way (unless you have a Jeep.) Great views and peaceful. We absolutely loved this area. The campground is checked daily for trash and bathroom necessities. The grounds are very well kept. We stayed in the first site and in our opinion is the best one. The third site at the end is downwind of the bathroom so people didn’t stay long there. Had a few others come in to the second spot, but we mostly had the place to ourselves. There is traffic going through to the trails everyday, but it didn’t bother us at all. Hike the dry riverbed if you have a chance. So pretty through there. A fourth site is passed the restroom to the right, but there is no pavilion or picnic table.

We followed the GPS directions from Campendium map and it took us right to the spot. The road is a washboard in spots. This location would not be good during the summer months as there is no shade. There are only three spots. There is a vault toliet. This location is far enough from the highway that you hear almost no road noise. I was told you could call the number on the gate at the around the cave to arrange to hike into the cave.

As mentioned, only 3 spots. Vault toilets and garbage cans available. The road adjacent to the spots can be quite busy maybe 5-10 cars per day. Within 5 mins. there's about a dozen (more secluded) dispersed camping options available to anything smaller than a class A, (Cave Canyon trail has a couple class A spots). Since the 3 spots are almost always full it's nice that there are so many other dispersed camping options as well as Rob Jagger Campground about 5 mins. away (with water and electric). This is not Pine Forest like Ruidoso, it's Juniper bushes and about 5-10 degrees warmer than Ruidoso. Close to the airport so even on hikes we rarely lost cell signal.

The first thing I should put down is this camp ground only has three campsites. All campsites have sheltered picnic tables and a fire ring and are pretty level. There is a very clean vault toilet and garbage cans but no water no electrical. The road coming up here is a little washboard but go slow and no problems. Nice and quiet with lots of trails to explore.