If you yearn for the solitude of remote mountain trails, strap on a backpack and pitch a tent or park your RV at a dispersed site anywhere in the forest where you are not trampling vegetation and are more than 200 feet from a waterway. For minimal amenities and no-charge primitive camping, Big Tesuque Campground 12 miles from Santa Fe provides 10 sites with picnic tables, grills and vault toilets. The campground is along the Santa Fe Scenic Byway in a stand of aspen and is a popular place to see autumn colors. Be ready for plenty of vehicles rumbling along the byway as well as other campers in the campground during the fall months.
Twenty-six campgrounds in the Santa Fe National Forest are sprinkled over its 1.5 million acres. Closest to Santa Fe, Black Canyon Campground sits at 8,400 feet nestled in aspen, Ponderosa pine and fir less than 10 miles from the city. Hike the 22-mile Borrego Trail or 1.5-mile Black Canyon loop. Camp at one of six walk-in tent sites or 29 non-electric RV-friendly sites. If telling ghost stories is on your list of fun camping activities, check out the Holy Ghost Campground 40 miles back in the mountains. The remote campground is reportedly haunted by a priest killed by Pueblo Indians in the late 1600s and it has five walk-in tent sites and 18 RV-friendly spots.
The Taos Box stretch of the Rio Grande River provides adrenaline junkies with heart-pounding adventure rated as class five -- the most challenging navigable level of whitewater on the International Scale of River Difficulty. The river mellows down to class three as it approaches Cochiti Reservoir 30 miles west of Santa Fe. You can wrap up your river trip with a relaxing stay at the reservoir’s campground, which has a boat ramp, sites with and without electricity, showers, flush toilets and a children’s playground. All facilities are wheelchair accessible.
Eight miles northeast of the city, Hyde Memorial State Park provides 350 acres of natural terrain with 4.2 miles of trails suitable for hiking, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. The campground has 50 sites, seven of which have electricity. A visitor center, RV dump, vault toilets, on-site water, sledding hill and playground round out the park’s amenities. The park is open year-round.
Feel like you’re away from it all while staying close to the conveniences of the city at a private campground right in town. Santa Fe KOA and Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground provide sites to tuck your tent in among pinion pine and juniper trees at a basic site with Wi-Fi and a restroom nearby. At KOA, you can opt for a tent site with water and electricity. Big rigs up to 65 feet long can enjoy pull-through sites at both campgrounds with full hookups including cable and Wi-Fi. Both offer hot showers, a fenced dog run, a playground and movies as well as other conveniences.
