Lake 13 Dispersed Camping

An amazing place to stay close to I25. I stopped in with my rig and was very surprised at not only how clean it is, but how well set up it is for multiple rigs.

Ground is level for all sites. There are about 6 or so places, maybe a few more, that one can set up camp. Trash in bear vaults and two vault toilets.

Lake is full of various bird species, great for photography.

I would certainly come back here again.

Awesome awesome awesome Beautiful views, quiet, peaceful! Lots of beautiful birds! Small lake water is really low. Room for four RVs three large sites in the open and one small site with shade. Three sites have trash cans and a picnic table. Good roads going in not far from Interstate. Small town nothing much but a small gas station grocery store. Nice people had a good variety in store. But close to Raton had a little more to offer. Trinidad CO if you need to do laundry. Nothing to do but drive into the mountains. Five day stay for free. No hookups. We will definitely be back.

I agree with just about every other 5 star reviewer here that this place is a gem! Only two of us were here in mid-July and it was our overnight stop between Los Alamos and Capulin Volcano. The dirt road in is in great condition and the lake was full for our visit. There were only two of us camping at the site but we did see about 4 or 5 day users coming and going, although no one came through after the sun had set. There were billions of tiny grasshoppers around and they weren't bothering us at all, and we weren't bothered my mosquitos or flies this time of year. We watched geese fly in and tons of birds having a great time at the lake, but we didn't think to look for other wildlife away from the lake because there was so much going on in the water! At night you could hear the frogs and other nocturnal creatures doing their thing and it was very soothing. We got a brief thunderstorm and some rain overnight which just added to the experience and we were glad to have found this place for a quick overnight stay. Also, we had full cell reception with T-Mobile! Highly recommended!

The road was in great condition. No ruts, wash boarding or pot holes. When you arrive there are 2 toilets and a bear trash can with a separate side for aluminum. The camping area is a looped road and you can park in the middle of the loop or to the left on the lake side. I would highly recommend the inner loop due to the fact that there are many hidden cacti in the grass on the left side. There are still a few in the inner loop, but not as many. I was really disappointed by this because I have 2 dogs and cant risk having them step in cacti that I can barely see myself. I have a portable fence and had trouble finding a spot that didn't have any cacti to set up a safe space for them.

Otherwise it's a super nice spot, big enough for probably 10 campers to fit and has a nice view of the lake. The sites are relatively level and I only needed to throw down one layer of leveling blocks and call it a day. I was hoping to take my dogs to the water but its not very close and I did not trust the hidden cacti in the grass.

The cell service was also very spotty with AT&T and Verizon. I also have a Homefi device that picks up all cell towers and it was unable to improve the speeds. Could hold a phone call and slowly download web pages but video calls were not possible. Therefore this would not be a good cite to work from and I'm glad I was here on my day off.

I won't be back due to the cacti and lack of cell service for remote work. But for someone looking for a nice easy spot to stop not far from the highway, this would be a good fit. Even getting here after dark wouldn't be an issue as long as you use a flashlight to make sure you don't step on a small cactus hiding under the grass!