Quaking Aspen Campground

Stayed for 2 nights in a 20' Boreas EOS 12 pulled by a Power Wagon. Pull through site 10 was perfect. Arrived early on Friday and largely had our choice. The campground never got completely full, but it is popular on weekends. Very clean and well-kept. Large trucks were busy hauling something northbound and produced a lot of noise during the day. Nights were quiet.

We were going to stay at Red Rock Campground near Gallup (and the nearby casino), but we opted against Red Rock campsite for inordinate number of low-rent full timer's, while not homeless, it was decidedly not our ideal overnight rest stop - even though we could/would have stayed there if need be. Reservations were required at Red Rock and their reservation availability didn't correlate with actual reality. Office was closed there too, so good luck there.

So we opted to drive to McGaffe campground / Quaking Aspen campground - WE WERE GLAD WE DID. Awesome, clean, perfect, not crowded, impressive. What a difference 20 miles makes! It was early October 2022, and sites were showing past documented (by post) occupancy, but obviously a treasure not many folks were aware of.

We were in site #10 at Quaking Aspen, nice pull-through campsite. Clean maintained rest rooms. No showers, no handheld cell service, but we even a couple sheriffs did pass through - yay we were happy to see McKinley County presence out in the boondocks!

We did manage to get Verizon 4G service with our WeBoost OTR repeater on top of the camper to coordinate a future visit with friends at Chaco, but NO CELL Service without our roof-top cell repeater.

We were planning on a stay there on the return trip from Chaco Canyon, but both McGafee campgrounds had closed Oct 15th for the winter season. We instead drove to RVUsa campground in Gallup, NM, also a camping winner!

So quiet. Holiday weekend and no problem finding a spot. There are a few pull throughs for larger rigs. No hook ups. Vault toilets not far. No water available. Camp sights are spread out so you don’t feel on top of your neighbors. Our neighbors saw a bear the first day so put your food up an watch your kids and pets. About 20 minutes from Gallup so convenient to get gas or go shopping. Dog park in Gallup was 20 minutes from us. We will definitely be back. Great deal for $5 dollars a night. Bring exact amount. Cash only.

We called the park number on the Campendium app, to our understanding the park was open.We arrived to find the gate closed but just before you get quaking aspen there is a road to the right if you are coming from hwy 40 take that road and you see pull outs just pick one. There will be a fork in the road say to the right, if you go left trucks go through there and there’s a lot of dust. It’s pretty quiet and not much traffic goes through. There was a lot of plastic alcohol bottles laying all around my husband walked around and picked up a huge trash bag of plastic alcohol bottles. Please people this is free to us pack it in pack it out it’s not that hard if you can bring it in throw it in the back of your car make your car look trashy not for the next person to have to pick up after you...

We stayed here one night in June 2019 in an RV. The park is well-spaced, plenty of trees and shade, neighbors were quiet. Site was mostly level with plenty of space. Would've stayed longer if we could. Restroom was ok, clean enough, but the typical state/national park restroom that, even when new, exudes an aura of depression. My nature nerd child found the name of the park interesting, as there were no quaking aspens.

This was a relatively great location for the price. We had maybe a 10 minute drive from the main highway on a paved road and had no issue getting into the camp. The big thing is to make sure to stop at the information board and grab an envelope and ticket receipt for the $5.00 overnight stay.

The section we stayed in was just off the road and had a picnic table, grill, and fire pit, all of which looked relatively new. There was also tent pads in place that we used, although the gravel made it tough to sleep on and get our pins firmly in place.

The site itself looked to have about 12 locations, many of which were filled with a mix of RVs and cars. There were basic toilets on site and a dumpster that had been locked but someone cut the chain to.

Most of the campers were quiet by 10 and between the soft noises of the surrounding forest and the wind from the higher elevation, it was a quiet night. We were woken up around 4:00 am by gun shots deep in the woods, although we assumed it was either a ranger or hunter. The location is by a road as well and you can occasionally hear cars going by.

Overall it was a great experience and I would easily camp here again.