Comfort Well Dispersed Camping

Beautiful spot, lots of trees though so watch your solar exposure. In the winter time we saw temperatures between 6 to 16°.
Only one other camper here, who happened to be the previous reviewer and showed us a beautiful spot.
Very quiet, about an hour from Gila. Cliff dwellings, or 20 minutes from the town of Mimbres.
Definitely worth coming to again!

We chose Comfort Well as it had the easiest access in the area due to a recent snow. The road in has a nice base and is firm after the snow has melted.

The sites are large and shaded. The trees are huge and sites are well spaced.

There are only a few sites that would work for solar or Starlink. We chose one by the entry due to the low angle of the sun in Winter, but would chose a site further back if we arrived in spring

We didn't see another soul during our stay. I enjoyed hiking and biking the many forest roads in the area.

There is zero cellular service in the area - Starlink worked perfectly.

I was the only tent-camping person and I had one small dual-sport motorcycle with stock exhaust. All others had massive camps set up with some playing music. I visit the forest for peace and solitude. I moved my camp once because someone set up too close to me. People were riding ATVs at a less-than-courteous rate, raising dust clouds. These riders were out at night 8 - 10 pm as well. One had booming bass polluting the peace of the forest. Unreal. So, I'd say this spot is for families and travelers with big campers that need easy access. Bring ear plugs.

We stayed here 4/4 - 4/10/21. Lots of folks on the weekends but during the week it was just us & 1 other camper. Plenty of space and natural beauty. Roberts lake is just 5 miles away but we were suprised to see that swimming & wading is prohibited... thats a first for either of us! Water was too cold for swimming anyway... but it was gorgeous and the pups had a good time.

Lots of ATVs on the weekends so heads up... Everyone was cool though and we had no problems.

The only complaint we have is all the trash left behind. We got there early afternoon Easter Sunday and apparently confetti eggs are popular because many of the campsites were littered with them. We went around and filled a trash bag with litter left behind and still didn't get everything.

This spot is beautiful, near perfect. We had the whole area to ourselves, likely because it is winter. We got lucky with the weather.....there was a little snow on the ground, but no snow while we were there. Beautiful, wooded sites. High canopies of trees, no problem for our 43 foot Momentum. As other reviewers have said, DO NOT DRIVE 15 or 180 up the mountain. We took 15 into Silver City, without our rig, and let’s just say, no sane person would be comfortable on that route. A rig would not make it in one piece. The trip from this site to the Cliff Dwellings was maybe 1.25 hours of twisty switchbacks, but it was beautiful. What a fantastic experience at the Cliff Dwellings. That’s what touring the country is all about, right? One, single downside.....there is ZERO cell reception on the mountain. So, be sure to bring a deck of cards or a board game. Lots of hiking and ATV opportunities. Really great site.

We stayed there for 3 nights last week(1/15/21~1/18/21) and it's really awesome.
This place seems to be famous for ATV riders since I've seen many ATVers during the stay but they are quite friendly and respectful. If you have an ATV or a dirt bike, don't forget to bring it.
My neighbor was running the generator all night long but it was far enough to ignore the noise.
Definitely I'll be coming back before summer comes with my ATV and the dirt bike.

Loved this spot!! It’s a network of fire roads. It was also patrolled by law enforcement which was nice to see. We arrived in late December. There wasn’t any snow, but some large puddles were inches thick with ice. We dodged those and hopped on our bikes to scope out a route to some nice spots. Large rigs can definitely get in here. Sites are all varying sizes. Met some locals who said this is the local camping spot and on any weekend in the warmer months there’s easily 70 rigs in here. We had the opposite. It was just us and some really tall trees. There’s no service I highly recommend getting a map from the ranger station. It was very helpful while exploring.

Some clarification needed here, Terry canyon is located on the east of route 35, you will have to go through a gate and travel a gravel road, you can safely travel about a mile until you come to an abandoned cattle corral and a windmill. Not advisable with any rig, did not see any fire pits or evidence of dispersed camping. There will be another fence to go through,Would be great for tent camping, not a soul to be found.

However if you go west you will see a cattle guard and a sign for "free woodchips" . This area is what is called Comfort Well. This is according to the USGS maps and the park rangers at the ranger station at the 11 mile marker.

Once you go over the cattle guard the first 100 yards is a bit rough in spots, just go slow and you shouldn't have any issues. At about a quarter mile you have reached one of the most beautiful camping spots to be found in this area of New Mexico. This area is believed to be the go to camping area for the locals. The area is popular with horse people and atv's, but everyone was respectful of you camping space.

When we were there there were class A's, 5ers, TT's.

In regards to cells service, we couldn't get anything with TMoble or Verizon, but you can go south 4 miles to the continental divide and get 3 bars. There is a safe pull off area.

Get full service at the ranger station at the 11 mile marker.

We thoroughly enjoyed this free and peaceful campsite in the Gila National Forest. Terry Canyon is easy to find, following the GPS coordinates above, and easy to access. There are multiple large sites with fire rings. All sites are under ponderosa trees, but the canopy is open enough to charge the batteries with solar, if that is your energy source. (If you are in a large RV or towing a trailer, do take Route 61 to 35 to get here. Do not take Route 15 from Silver City or Route 152 from Hillsboro.)

We originally planned on camping at Mesa Campground or Upper End Campground, but we figured why not camp for free if Terry Canyon turned out to be a good option. We checked it out on our way up to Mesa Campground and found it to be empty and spacious. The Forest Service (presumably) had even stacked up ponderosa logs and branches at each site for campfires. We headed up to Mesa Campground to check it out and fill up our fresh water tank. The campsites there were small and cramped, confirming our decision to camp at Terry Canyon. Unfortunately the dump station there did not have potable water, so we had to pull into a campsite to fill up on fresh water.

We selected a large circle that was close to only one other campsite. We parked so that our solar panel would be in the sun most of the day. We enjoyed evening campfires, a symphony of birds, the vanilla scent of the ponderosa on the breezes, and even our hammock in between a couple of the trees. From here, we explored the Gila Cliff Dwellings, Lake Roberts, and Silver City.

The only downside to this campsite is the possibility of noisy neighbors, as is the case with any dispersed camping. It can be the most remote and peaceful experience, but a rowdy group can change the experience completely. We had several peaceful nights, but on a couple of nights we could hear loud music coming from our distant neighbors. The day before we left, a group with their horses began arriving. We were told that 70 people and their horses were expected! It seems like a Forest Service permit and some form of notice such as a sign would be necessary for an event like this. In any case, this has been one of my favorite campsites on our yearlong travels, but you do take your chances with dispersed camping.