Chosa Campground

This is basically a big, rocky parking lot. Plenty of room for a lot of RVs, and very close to Carlsbad Caverns park.

Far enough from the main highway to dampen road noise, but while we were here quite a few big rigs were using the county road that runs adjacent to the camping/parking area.

I saw a few tent campers, but I'm not sure about setting up a tent on this rock. Be sure to have strong stakes and a good hammer if you plan on tenting here.

Very dark at night and makes for a good star watching area.

There were some BLM provided trash barrels, but no other amenities.

You Odyssee this place (get it?)! We like it.

We thought it would be packed for the Memorial Day weekend but when we got here, there were just two pop-ups. It's hard scrabble - meaning rocky. I wouldn't pitch a tent unless you had sturdy stakes and an air mattress. Not sure if you can pitch a tent over the fence but it's a lot better than the type of gravel. That said, we helped a couple of first time EVER campers with their tent (in a stout wind), they had an air mattress, and I'm sure they'll be fine once the wind dies down.

We parked in the NE corner and it is level. No issues getting in with a big rig at all. For everyone, enter slowly because of the occasional ruts/divots. Pick your direction based on wind, sun etc. It was WINDY when we got here but not much dust at all.

Thanks Campendium for helping us find this place!

This is basically a giant gravel parking lot with a couple of trash cans and makeshift fire pits, but if you park along the fence you can get pretty views. We parked in the top-left hand corner which I think is the best spot in the lot.

Quiet, you can hear the highway a tiny bit but you can’t see it. Some of the dispersed spots in the area would have much more highway noise than here. Got to see cattle roaming around and hear coyotes at night.

Things to be aware of: it can be very windy so don’t put out an awning. Also keep your door closed or so many moths will fly in. Keep an eye out for big rocks and fire pits as you drive in.

The size and ease of access means that any rig of any size can access, so the guaranteed availability is nice. This seems to be getting a bit more popular, we almost always had about 5 or so neighbors here, but there’s so much space so you don’t have to park near each other.

We worked here for the week and had decent speeds on our Verizon hotspot. Our signal did randomly go away one afternoon but I think it was anamoly and there happened to be a tower problem that day.

Can’t get a better spot for visiting Carlsbad Caverns, it’s right by the entrance. About 30 minutes to stores and restaurants in Carlsbad and 30 minutes to Guadalupe NP.

I looked at reviews for BLM land around the area and decided on this spot based only on reviews here. I am not at all dissapointed. Huge, fairly level, gravel/rock pad. Only 6 or 7 miles south of the park entrance, close to the highway, but very quiet. We've been here 4 nights, never been more than 1/2 dozen rv/tents overnight. Cell service,AT&T, is decent, 2bars LTE, a neighbor said he was able to bring in a few channels on his TV antenna but we couldn't with ours,but Dish works flawlessly. So much to see in the area besides the caverns too, if you like to drive around and see the wildlife and scenery like we do. Trash cans on all 4 corners of the pad have been full since our arrival, we found a dumpster on the way to nearby Rattlesnake Springs.

There we five other rigs the night I stayed and there was still plenty of room and enough distance so when people ran generators the noise was hardly noticed. The road it’s off of isn’t terribly busy so its not too bad when you’re parked next to it. One warning: plan on fueling up in Carlsbad before heading south to Guadalupe (there are no other fuel stations for 145 miles) or bare the outrageously high gas price of the station at the entrance of the caverns. I made this mistake and paid $3.09/ gal while gas in Carlsbad is $2.69-$2.79/ gal. Overall this lot is great and I’d stay here again.

As has been said, this is just a large (20 acres?) gravel/rock parking lot carved from the prairie for us to boondock.

Coming south from Carlsbad/White's City, look for Mile marker 9, or the blue/yellow County Road 424, turn east (the only way) Chosa is just up the hill on the left. 424/Dillahunty Rd is a paved road good enough for any sized rig. Heavy oilfield traffic uses it, but not loud enough or frequent enough to be a bother. We had 3bar Verizon LTE, fast enough for our MiFi to run 30 Mbs down & 27 Mbs up. That's better than home!

We liked Chosa for it's central location to the Caverns & Guadalupe NP. We did check out Rattlesnake Springs, Cottonwood Picnic area, and Sitting Bull Falls (recommended) during our 5 day stay. There's some beautiful drives thru the mountains just west of there.

The free dump at Carlsbad was easy to get to. Follow the coordinates already posted below. Going N. on 180/285, watch for the green "Truck Route 400 feet" sign, right there, then the next right is Plaza, right to the dead end. An easy free dump that does have a short wash water hose and u-turn to get back to the highway.