Deerhead Campground

The campground is very nice but not big rig friendly. The report of $20 is not correct. Standard rate is $28. They must have raised it in ‘23. Senior pass is $14/nght. Vault toilets are very clean. The only reason why this didn’t get 5 stars is because it is right next to a road. All sites are paved with picnic tables and fire pit/ grill.

Beautiful little campground. Sites are on each side of a narrow valley. Most are tent sites, but some RV sites for smaller 25' or less. Some are double sites. Pick your site carefully. The campground sits between the curve in the highway so you get road noise during the day. Gets quiet at night. Lots of elk wander through, keep your distance and enjoy the herds. You get the occasional stray car driving through, but not many. This year's campground host (2022) does nothing that we saw. We requested toilet paper. In the time we've been here, 5 days, not one restroom or site has been cleaned or trash emptied. We've picked up beer cans, plastic bags, etc. Since the majority of campers appear to care and leave their sites clean, it's not to bad. But, there was a fire left burning at our site. Hopefully, the 2023 host will do their job.

We arrived at 2, only one other camper plus the host. Picked a site at the other end and set up. Wind changed and the Pit Toilet 100 yards away reeked. Went to check and it was filthy and a lot of trash including what looked like the crushed cap to hyper-dermic needle. A few minutes a truck drove through and used the bathroom but wasn’t in there very long. Didn’t think much off it until about an hour later when a blacked out car pulled down with two guys they walked around then left. Back about 20 minutes later and the choose the site next to outs and set up a hammock. Broke camp in 10 minutes and rolled out. Never saw the host but there was 5 vehicles at his site. 🧐😳

Quiet and peaceful, a cool respite from the long desert journey between SoCal and mid Texas. We had the time to get off the boring I20.
We paid the senior rate, half price.
Wonderfully uncrowded in April. Only one other camper here. And close to restaurants, stores in Cloudcroft.
Two bars for Verizon.
No water faucets available that we could see, but we had a full tank.
No dump station.

We stayed two nights at this first come first serve USFS campground near NM Route 130. Arrival is easy and there is good access for RVs. The driveway and access roadway is well paved asphalt. There are good tent campsites too. There is limited drinking water. There is one water faucet at the drinking fountain near the entrance. The pit toilets are clean. There is a neat hiking trail (Rim Trail) which passes the campground. There is a good view of the Tularosa Basin from the Rim Trail about two miles west of the Deerhead CG. We saw Elk and wild horses. Cloudcroft village is 1.5 miles to the north. We rode bicycles into the village for shopping and yummy lunch at the Texas Pit BBQ. There is some traffic noise during the day, however at night it is quiet. We had cell phone service and were able to stream music.

We rolled in after dark, at the end of a long & adventurous day, which started in San Angelo, Texas and ran out of gas 4 miles from the filling station in Cloudcraft—if you're coming in from the East on 82, fill up your tank before leaving Artesia! It's worth mentioning, we had at least a dozen people pass us while stranded and only one car did not stop to see how they could help us out—and thanks to the kindness of strangers in this community, we were back in action in less than an hour.

Sleepy and Pines campgrounds were closed per .gov site, so we checked out nearest RV park thinking hookups would help us rebound from the day—sites were full, super cramped, and difficult to access–not something we were feeling up to maneuvering in the moment. That left Deerhead in the immediate proximity.

Except for a herd of elk, we had the left loop (sites 1-8) all to ourselves—agree with previous reviewer that hairpin turn with a rig bigger than ours (25') would have been tricky, if the park would have been full—doable if empty, as we found it. We were passing through, one-night stay en route to Sedona, and were able to level site 7 with the jack to make it level enough to sleep without unhooking . . . yay.

Bathrooms were super clean—other than a water fountain at the entrance, didn't see a place to get water in larger volumes. Cell coverage (at&t) only showed two bars, but with our hotspot (booster not yet enabled) we had four devices going without issue. Hookups are the only thing that would have improved the experience.

Temps were in the 40's and we woke up to the loveliest snowfall—it didn't stick, but it was so peaceful (no noise complaints re: road above—perhaps minimal traffic this time of year? on a weekday?). Overall, it was so quiet, so peaceful, so what we needed to recalibrate from the day before and kickoff the next leg of our adventure.

Note: Rate was $11.50/nt with the NPS Geezer Pass.

A previous poster added photos that show "Max Length 35 ft." That sign has been painted over to now show "Max Length 25 ft." I think a longer rig can get in here, as I was able to easily park with a 24ft motorhome and a tow car. However, the turns are a bit tight, and the road to the right contains quite a few serious dips where larger motorhomes have obviously dragged bottom.

When you come into the campground, you can turn either left (sites 1-8) or right (sites 9-20.) The left side has larger, more level sites, but it's like an amphitheater in that this section is in the center of a hairpin curve on Hwy 130. The noise from hotrods racing around this curve is really loud long after dark.

If you go to the right, it's much quieter, campsites are much more spacious and scenic, but then you have to manage the dips in the road, so beware if you have a large overhang in the rear.

The benefits of this campground are the fact that it is so close to Cloudcroft. There is a trail right across Hwy 130 which leads into town in only 1.5 miles. And at the top of the curve to the left is the Rim Trail, a beautiful hiking trail that goes for 20+ miles.

I saw elk, deer, and horses while camped here. It was a clean, well maintained site with a nice fire ring and grill. However, surrounding grassy areas have not been well maintained, and contain large thistles and weeds, some which do wield "hitchhiker" burrs if you happen to have pets.

This campsite, like all of Cloudcroft, is blissful Sunday eve through Friday at noon. But come the weekend, it gets over the top insane, exceeding the maximum number of people and vehicles per site.