City of Rocks State Park Campground

Out in the middle of nowhere is a special place. If you enjoy rocks, sunsets, and night skies, you’ll love this place. Vault toilets abound and are clean. The visitor center has flush toilets and hot showers.

Just down the road is Faywood Hot Springs, a funky cool place for soak. Day trips to Silver City are fins as well. ATT service on the north side. We’ll be back!

We opted for Boondocking among the rocks rather than staying in the hook up area! It was amazing. We did have to circle two or three times to find a space that would hold our 33 foot travel trailer. However it was definitely possible to bring in a bigger rig here! The hook up area would have no issues whatsoever with bigger rigs though. Being able to explore the rocks right outside your door is really awesome! Our dogs loved it! The location of the state park is perfect for exploring Silver City and Deming. However the big attraction is the park itself! If that is all you came for, the trip is worth it!

From other users’ reviews I’d only highlight the lack of level spots, which seemed to be actively worked on by staff in our two days there.

Small place but that’s also the charm, the boulders were so much fun to wander around in— and easy too, you could walk every bit of it with your hands in your pockets.

No dump stations so be aware, but great boondocking experience none the less- generators allowed 7a-10p in case you’re needing to charge devices or top off the battery. We’re actually really glad we didn’t get a water/electric spot because those are outside of the sites nestled in the boulders, which each have a unique & incredibly photogenic charm. There are 5 W+E sites in the boulders, but those are reservation only(worth it tbh).

Can’t believe we had great Verizon service the whole time too! We definitely plan to return.

This is an awesome state park with a really confusing site selecting process, maybe the most confusing of any we've visited. Here's a quick summary:

There is one big dirt loop in the park, easily drivable with any size rig, along which there are ~50 dry camping sites. The majority of these sites are not flat, and many of them are rutted or would be difficult for larger rigs. Maybe 15 of them are viable for 30 foot rigs, and maybe 6 or 7 would work for 45 foot monsters like ours. These sites are all numbered, "1" through "49."

There is also a row of nine more traditional side-by-side sites with E+W. These are consistently flat and long enough for any rig. They are numbered "E1" to "E9", although the park map they hand out doesn't even show them, and our park volunteer was confused about the difference between "E6" and the dry camping site "6". (Totally dumb numbering scheme as well, but hey.)

Just three or four of the dry sites are reservable online, and half of the E+W sites are reservable. Everything else is walk-in.

As of today, you can't get a heads-up as to the number of sites available by calling ahead. They don't track it, they don't have the staff to go around and observe it, and registration fees are paid in cash via deposit boxes outside, so there's no technology to help out here. (The staff can advise you on availability of the reservable sites, but there are only ~8 of those as mentioned above, and anyway you can find that info online.)

The good news is that the rocks are neat and it's a great park. You have to be willing to gamble on availability.

We got excellent Verizon LTE (>80Mbps!) on the south side of the formation in site 2.

This campground is so amazing! When we first drove in, we were in awe! We had permanent smiles on our faces the whole time. The boulders are HUGE and surround the campground. I liked our campsite as we were away from the main camp area and had our own little city of rocks. Beautiful landscape views were everywhere. Colorful sunsets. Very quiet. Can see lots of stars. Tons of hiking and biking trails. We hiked Table Mountain Trail, which was a moderate hike. Gives you 360 degree views of where you're at. The hike itself is pretty too. We biked the Hydra Trail. Not sure if it was the elevation change or what but this little bike ride kicked our butt. Great views as well! They also have a Planet Walk through the center of the main campground. They have placards up which explain the different planets and solar system. Very cool!! Vault toilets around, and showers are located adjacent to the visitors center. Kind of odd to be walking out of the showers when people were walking into the visitors center, but hey we all take showers. No biggie. Oh, they also recycle here as well. Liked that!

Will definitely be staying here again if we get the opportunity. Just can't explain the amazing feeling we had here. You have to experience it for yourself. :)

We arrived while the Visitor Center was open. Our reservations were for one night, a non-electric site. Since it was warm that day, upper 80's, we opted giving up our scenic boulder site for a 30A electric site. These are first come/first serve and you have the option to renew each day.
Many of the non-electric sites are among the boulders and scenic; looks like a scene out of the Flintstones cartoon/movie.
We did not stay long enough to hike the trails, bur enjoyed hiking among the boulders one evening. If you want to stay for 2-3+ days, make reservations early.
If cell service/WiFi is important to you, don't stay here. No WiFi service and cell service is "spotty" for ATT. We had to drive around the park to get 2 bars.

You should be prepared to be 30 miles away from most things while you are here, Deming to the south and Silver City to the north are both that far away. Most sites here have good solar potential but your stay would be made easier with a quiet generator. There are vault toilets around the park and showers with hot water in the bathrooms at the visitor center. Around the back side of the park near the windmill there is a vault toilet which has a faucet labeled "drinking water" if you need to fill your fresh tank. The visitor center also has water spigots in the bathrooms if you just need to fill small 5 gallon container. Plenty of mountain bikes and hikers in this park. There are trails which go around the park area, the main one is 3.2 mile with a few choices to make the trip shorter or longer. There is one trail which goes up 1.5 miles onto a plateau/small mesa with several rock formations which I noticed families climbing on, apparently climbing is not discouraged here and the place seems family oriented. There is a small amount of light pollution here but nothing which obscures the sky on a clear night, if astronomy is your thing this is a great place to watch some stars or do night photography. The staff here were all super friendly and very helpful. Spotted some unique rigs here too. If you have the chance to see this place during nice weather I would highly recommend. T-Mobile and ATT worked but service was spotty, if you have a booster/repeater that may or may not improve your signal, plan on no signal inside your RV. I did see a Wifi AP with the park name but it was wpa2 password protected. Photos I took were at night using f/8~22 ISO 100 using a Nikon D3100 with no tripod.

My advice to you is to make sure you are prepared to boondock when you arrive because the electric and water sites are pretty few and as popular as this place is, you can't count on getting one of those on your first try.

The rock formations are amazing and you could easily get lost while winding your way through them. Not likely though, cause the dry campsites are dotted all in among them. I love the dry sites for their uniqueness but I personally need to plug in.

Very important to note that there is NO DUMP STATION here at all. There is a truck stop just north of Deming that has a free dump station, but be aware that their gas prices are not competitive with those just down the street. Their food is also a bit high.

The sites here (even the electric ones) are not level. Be ready to do some adjusting when you park. It's a very cool place, though. I wish it weren't so popular because if you get there and they're full, you have to go to Rockhound SP, south of Deming. Then you find out that they're full, too.

There are a ton of people living in the NM State Park system through the annual pass and it's getting rough.

One other cool aspect of this park is that just about a mile down the road, there's a hot spring place with RV sites, and they accept Passport America. :) I didn't go there but I will if I go back.