New Mexico Parks and Recreation Areas with Camping

Rising 200 feet above the valley floor, this massive sandstone bluff was a welcome landmark for weary travelers. A reliable waterhole hidden at its base made El Morro (or Inscription Rock) a popular campsite. Beginning in the late 1500s Spanish, and later, Americans passed by El Morro. While they rested in its shade and drank from the pool, many carved their signatures, dates, and messages. Before the Spanish, petroglyphs were inscribed by Ancestral Puebloans living on top of the bluff over 700 years ago. read more...

Phone: 505-783-4226   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Ramah   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Camping   Details Provided By: El Morro

El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area was established in 1987 and is a relative newcomer to the National Park System. This monument preserves 114,277 acres of which 109,260 acres are federal and 5,017 acres are private. El Malpais means the badlands but contrary to its name this unique area holds many surprises, many of which researchers are now unraveling. Volcanic features such as lava flows, cinder cones, pressure ridges and complex lava tube systems dominate the landscape. Closer inspection reveals unique ecosystems with complex relationships. Sandstone bluffs and mesas border the eastern side, providing access to vast wilderness. read more...

Phone: 505-285-4641   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Grants   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Rock Climbing, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: El Malpais National Monument

Best known for mesas, sheer-walled canyons, and several thousand ancestral Pueblo dwellings found among them, Bandelier also includes over 23,000 acres of designated Wilderness. The best-known archeological sites, in Frijoles Canyon near the Visitor Center, were inhabited from the 1100s into the mid-1500s, and earlier groups had used the area for thousands of years. read more...

Phone: (505) 672-3861   Price Range: $0 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Los Alamos   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Camping   Details Provided By: Bandelier

Chaco is remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams, and mounds, required a great deal of well organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering, and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture - one that still amazes and inspires us a thousand years later read more...

Phone: 505-786-7014   Price Range: $4 - $8   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Nageezi   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Park   Activities: Biking / Bicycling, Hiking, Camping, Nature Walks   Details Provided By: Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the people of the Mogollon culture who lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280s through the early 1300s. The surroundings probably look today very much like they did when the cliff dwellings were inhabited. It is surrounded by the Gila National Forest and lies at the edge of the Gila Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area. This designation means that the wilderness character of the area will not be altered by the intrusion of roads or other evidence of human presence. read more...

Phone: (505) 536-9461   Price Range: $3 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Silver City   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Gila Cliff Dwellings