Sugarite Canyon State Park Campground

Love this place, we gave it a try a couple weeks ago. And we've returned again, looking forward to coming next week. The staff is very friendly lots of trails and not to say the fish. Wow, caught two big trout, priceless in my eyes, but for a cheap price of 14 dollars a night. No cell service is the only bad part. But hey a good ol wilderness get away, do we really need them.

Campground is one, if not the best state campground in New Mexico. And NM has a lot of very good campgrounds. The Superintendent has a great group of folks working as hosts and maintenance crew. Yes, there are bears and yes, U have to keep an out for rattlers. But this is not the city, urban camping if that is what U are looking for. The canyons and forested areas, and meadows are wonderful. Plus, there are a couple of lakes with pretty good fishing. The gift shop and tour of the old mining building ruins are a plus. Just a beautiful, well maintained , well managed campground.

There are two RV campgrounds here at the state park, and we stayed at soda pocket. When you get closer to the 1st campground, Lake Alice, you will find a pull off with a water spigot where you can fill your tanks. While we were filling up the ranger came to make sure we used our 4WD once we get closer to the campground. I'm glad he warned us because we needed it! The campground is 4 miles on regular road from the park entrance and 2 miles up a very steep dirt/gravel road. Our transmission overheated a few times, so it took up about 35 minutes to make it up the 2 mile road. Once we got up to the campground we were happy! The spots are large and have covered pavilions. The views are amazing and you are above the entire park! You have access to several hiking trails from that area and can drive to more. There is no water at soda pocket campground so you'll need to fill up at lake Alice before hand. There is a dump, but it is at the lake Alice Campground and it is tight!!! We made it with our 33ft camper, but had to enter the "wrong" way and got scolded by the camp host. If you are a larger rigs you probably will need to find another place nearby to dump

This campsite is amazing. If you have a couple of days to stay there’s plenty of hiking trails and two beautiful lakes you can fish. There’s water and electric at each site and a dump site near the bath rooms. It is first come first serve so have a backup plan but there’s a couple of places in town to stay if it’s full. We have a 25’ trailer and fit fine. There where some pretty big A classes as well. There’s no cell signal unless you hike six miles up to the top of the Mesa…. I did have signal up there though

Stayed here for a night. Wish I could have stayed longer but will definitely be back. There’s a great hike past the lake across the street from the campground. There’s an old town from the early 1900s you can hike to and look around. The hike takes about an hour or so. It is first come first serve so have a back up plan if you’re coming through. The didn’t have water hook ups at the site but there’s a spigot across from the campground you can use to fill up.

We stayed at Lake Alice campground for 3 nights. The campsites are close and far from level! However the cleanliness and views made up for any small issues like that. We hiked the Coal Camp trail and enjoyed seeing the ruins of what was once a thriving multicultural community. We paid the $14 dollar electric site fee because we let our NM ACP expire. With pass it’s only $4 dollar for electric site. There are 5 sites with sewer hookups as well. We would for sure stay here again. Even though our stay was spent enjoying rain showers for most of the time. We hiked in the rain and although it was a bit wet and slick it was amazing.

I haven't been to the park yet. Got reservation for tomorrow. Wanted to post this now however...A few reviews here have said this park campground is first come, first served. It is not. Maybe it was but now reservations are thru Reserve America. Click on the website link above. Glad I checked instead of taking people's word for it because there was only one site left.
There is also a $4 'reservation fee', so that $14 for one night becomes $18. Still a great deal.
Also, check-in isn't until 4 pm. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me. Most check-ins are around 2 pm. You can't even enjoy the park that first day because by the time you get unpacked, settled in and eat...the sun's going down.
More review after I've actually camped there...if I don't get eaten by a bear or bitten by a rattlesnake.

We were looking for just a overnight stay, and we could not of chosen better than this state park. We had called ahead to check for availability, but we were told it was "first come first serve". When we arrived the ranger was just leaving for the day, but stopped to give us a map and advised us we must see the best part of the park before we leave.
The spots were quaint and could have everything you need, but we chose for an electric site. That evening and again the next morning we went up to the reservoir to check it out. I would agree with the ranger, don't leave the park without taking the time to visit the reservoir.
We would love to come back and spend several days and hike some trails.
No cell service.