theboondork's RV blog

Bobbing and weaving through the New Mexico state Park reservation system

4/17/2023

Clicking the pics shouldn't be a bore, especially since there's only four.

My current boondocking site....This is subject to change daily. Fortunately for me, with my home on my back like a turtle, moving to another campsite in the campground takes no longer than cranking up the truck and driving away.

Another day of weather perfection, but the next three days, it's supposed to be windy, at least the temperatures are perfect; with humidity in the single digits, it makes the 80° days perfectly comfortable.

I want to stay around Rockhound State Park longer, but since the place is almost always full, I have to skip from spot to spot when one becomes available. There are no first come, first serve sites at Rockhound, so everything is reserved, which is just how "Reserve America" likes it. This means that to get any campsite here, you have to go through Reserve America, which has many state parks wrapped up tight with their expensive, onerous, and, as far as I'm concerned, "ripoff" way of doing business.

So I've made a reservation for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and each reservation costs four dollars ... Thank you reserve America, for charging us for what used to be free.... But at least I can stay here for a while. But everything is full for Tuesday night, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do then. I will start by throwing myself at the mercy of the campground hosts and see if they can solve my problem without me having to leave Rockhound for a night. If that doesn't work, I can drive back into Deming, about 12 miles away, and overnight at either the Walmart or boondock at the Escapees RV Park. Life was a lot easier for me before Reserve America took over the reservation system and made the parks get rid of most, if not all, of their first-come, first-serve sites.

Theboondork

The view from my current campsite. I can't believe how lucky I was, not only was I able to get a campsite when the place was full, but if I could have had my pick of any campsite in the place ...I would have picked this one.

Rockhound State Park, office, welcome center, and home where the head Ranger lives.

Sun setting over Rockhound State Park.

6 Comments

Judith

4/18/2023 08:37:08 pm

Now that IS a good spot!! Looks great. Enjoy.

Tom

4/18/2023 09:43:57 pm

Thank you Judith. I did luck out getting a great spot. But at Rockhound State Park I have to take whatever I can get. It's a very popular place, and during the season it's either full or almost full seven days a week. And the only reason I'm doing as well as I am, is the season is starting to wind down.

Tom

Larry Worsham

4/19/2023 06:04:26 am

I feel your pain....anything available at City of Rocks? I always appreciated it when NM had a mix of reservation and walk ins....$$$$$$ prevails.

I ran across this site https://www.explorenm.com/camping/

Gives a short synopsis of CG through out the state..

Safe Travels

4/19/2023 07:29:56 am

Thanks Larry for that New Mexico campground website, I've never seen that before. I thumbed through it a little bit and it's got lots of good information in it so I bookmarked it.

My only complaint about the site would be that the information and the reviews are pretty old, often 10 or more years. But in ordinary times the age of the reviews wouldn't matter a whole lot because things like state parks didn't change very much, or very often. But now a lot of reviews of state parks, and most anything else written before Covid have very little relation to today's world, and that would be especially true for any information about RVing; which is sad, but unfortunately that's the hand we've all been dealt.

City of Rocks State Park has four or five first come-first serve sites so I'm hoping I'll be able to find a spot there when I leave Rockhound.

Tom

OFM

4/19/2023 08:02:31 am

This is a place, near you, I have spent some time looking around. Boondocking at its best to me. I may have told you about it before.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+Cummings+1863-1886/@32.464377,-107.6491274,17z/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x86dee0bfe69c861f:0xae81976b04bad8c6!4b1!8m2!3d32.4643725!4d-107.6465525!16s%2Fm%2F09v5qlg

4/19/2023 08:55:27 am

Thank you for that info Barney, I think you did mention that before. I looked it up on the Internet and a lot of folks mentioned bumpy roads, four-wheel-drive, and hard to find. The area does look interesting to me, I love old Adobe walls, and especially old cemeteries. And being able to boondock there makes it twice as good.

But I'm not sure if my old truck is up to the challenge. It's got four-wheel-drive but I normally don't go looking for places where it's required. It's got over 200,000 miles on it and a tad over 2000 pounds sitting on its back, and the thought of having a breakdown in the middle of nowhere is always in the back of my mind, and as you know New Mexico has a lot of "middle of nowhere."

But I'm going to be in the area since I'll be heading for City of Rocks probably next week sometime, and I always take the Deming to Hatch shortcut when I'm in the area. So I'll read a bit more on the Internet and see if I can find some more recent reviews.... Maybe New Mexico has paved the road by now, and put up a Walmart in the area.

Tom

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Bobbing and weaving through the New Mexico state Park reservation system

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