Stargazing

Camp Rio

30 RV Sites, 3 Cabins, 12 Tent Sites, 2 Onsite RV/Trailers, 1 Vintage RV Rental

Camp Rio in Mayhill, NM, offers 34 full-hookup RV sites, 3 cabins, and 12 tent sites, with 30 and 50-amp service and room for rigs up to 75 feet. Sites are labeled precisely: 30/50-amp standard pull-thrus with and without a fire pit, 30/50-amp premium back-ins with a fire pit, and 30-amp premium back-ins. All carry water, sewer, and electric with site-delivered WiFi and a picnic table. At 75 feet the pull-thrus take long coaches. The camp is open all year, with laundry, a bathhouse with showers, a general store, firewood, a hot tub, and a pavilion. Pets are welcome. The camp also hosts weddings. Creek frontage runs the property, with hiking, swimming, picnicking, planned activities, and the kind of high-desert dark sky that makes stargazing a reason to stay up. Mayhill sits at 6,700 feet in the Sacramento Mountains of Otero County, in Lincoln National Forest ponderosa country. White Sands, Bluff Springs, Carlsbad Caverns, the OSHA Trail, golf at The Lodge, and Ruidoso Downs are all within range. Rates for sites, cabins, and tent spots are on the booking page. Summer in the mountains is the busy season here.

from $44/night

Chinook Cabins & RV Park

17 RV Sites

Chinook Cabins and RV Park in South Fork, Colorado, offers 17 full-hookup back-in RV sites in the upper Rio Grande valley, with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 40 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. A single 30/50-amp back-in category means every guest gets the same spec, with cabins, a pavilion, community fire pit, laundry, and showers. Seventeen back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with site WiFi, sized to 40 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. One consistent category and no guesswork about what you booked; note the 40-foot cap before bringing a larger coach. Cabins round out the lodging. A laundry, showers, firewood, and a pavilion handle the practical side. A community fire pit, basketball, and horseshoes fill the grounds, with skiing, snowboarding, offroading, a golf course, mountains, a lake, and a river all nearby. The dark San Juan sky makes for exceptional stargazing. Pets are welcome. The property has operated since 1908, which makes it one of the oldest continuously running camping and lodging businesses in the southern Rockies — 117 years of the same job in the same valley is worth noting. South Fork sits where the South Fork River meets the Rio Grande in the San Juan Mountains, with Wolf Creek Pass and its enormous snowpack just west, the Rio Grande's Gold Medal trout water running through, Creede's mining history north, and the Great Sand Dunes within reach east. Summer is peak in the Colorado high country, with fall color and Wolf Creek's ski season extending demand. Reserve well ahead for June through September.

from $42/night

Coyote Keeth's RV Park

Coyote Keeth's RV Park in Clayton, NM, offers full-hookup pull-thru RV sites carrying water, sewer, and electric. Contact the park for site count, amp service, and maximum rig length, since those specifics aren't published here. Every site is a pull-thru, so nothing needs unhitching. A bathhouse with showers, walking trails, and WiFi cover the essentials. Horse pens are available for guests traveling with stock, which almost no highway park offers. Pets are welcome, with a dog park. Birding, hiking, and some of the darkest sky in the continental United States fill the property — northeastern New Mexico has almost no light pollution, and the stargazing is the reason to stay a second night. Clayton sits just off Highway 87 at mile marker seven in Union County, where the basalt flows of the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field, the shortgrass prairie of the Kiowa National Grassland, and the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail all converge. Capulin Volcano National Monument is a short drive west, and a state park and lake are nearby. Rates and availability are on the booking page. Call ahead about paddock availability and your rig's fit.

from $25/night