Camping/Off-roading near Carlsbad Caverns?

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marcfj60

marcfj60

15 Year
Joined
Oct 1, 2006
Threads
210
Messages
4,507
Location
Sandia Park, NM
I'm thinking of borrowing a pop-up camper and staying near Carlsbad Caverns for a few days in March or April. When I was looking at some maps, it looks like there are some small mountains around the area, maybe Guadalupe Mountains. Has anyone ever spent any time around there or those mountains? Is any camping or FS roads for exploring in the LC that would be worth my time?
 
Sitting bull falls is a nice area, I am sure there are areas like dark canyon that can provide good camping areas. If you don't get much input from the forum I can ask some of the guys I work with that live in the area.
 
jstncse said:
Sitting bull falls is a nice area
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x2 should be warm enough to get in the water with the warm weather we have been having

I stayed at Dog Canyon campground 12 years ago, weird little camp in TX that's only accessible from Carlsbad NM. The ranger was grumpy with us for going 5mph over the limit (10-15mph limit?). Not sure how he knew since he was hanging out in his shack...guessing he yelled at everyone that came down the road:p not
 
marcfj60 said:
I'm thinking of borrowing a pop-up camper and staying near Carlsbad Caverns for a few days in March or April. When I was looking at some maps, it looks like there are some small mountains around the area, maybe Guadalupe Mountains. Has anyone ever spent any time around there or those mountains? Is any camping or FS roads for exploring in the LC that would be worth my time?
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Well I live in the area....if you call Artesia in the area..

.I have been to Dog Canyon on more than one occasion & it is a really nice park that is in Texas, but the only way to drive there in from NM . SR 137 is now a oil field road and as such the first 30 miles have lots of truck traffic so be careful. As a oil field road it is somewhat rough for the first 30 miles but after that it ain't to bad. There is a place called "Queen" that have RV spots and tent camping about 40 miles from US 285 and there are lots of FS roads to explore......They also have a cafe that is open part time that makes one of the best Green Chile CheeseBurger in the state of NM...It is about 10/15 more miles to Dog Canyon from Queen. No gas for sale in the area.......

Sitting Bull falls is also off of SR 137 and it is a great place for day runs but be aware that there was a large Fire through there last year and it is just now opening back up and I don't think you can camp there yet....

Brantley Lake has some camping sites but don't eat the fish from the lake.....You can fish but you have to release them back because of some problems from the past lake.....

There are places to see from White City south of Carlsbad and they also have camping/RV spots, cafes, gas stations. There are some runs from there, ie Washington Ranch & lots of oil field roads to explore.....

I think you get the idea that you can find lots to explore in Southeast New Mexico. Come on down and look around for as long as you want......We take lots of Fun Runs with the different car clubs all around Southeast NM......... :bounce2::popcorn::beer:

Sorry for the long story...I don't even like to type....lol.

Mike
 
When we visited the caverns, we stayed at a NM state park CG, not too far from the caverns. I can't recall the name at the moment but it had nice facilities.
 
There are a lot of nice places to camp up in the Guadalupe's off of 137. If you head past the town of Queen and take a left onto Cougar Rd, there is a nice loop that you can take fairly far off of the pavement. Lots of great places to camp on that road. Dog Canyon is decent as well with some basic facilities if that is necessary. Off of Dark Canyon there used to be nice places to camp in Juniper Cyn, although that burned pretty badly in the CCNP fire and is pretty barren now, it was really nice because the canyon ran parallel with the main road in CCNP and was free of traffic and was nice and quiet. I have done a lot of work down in the area, so feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
 
I think I want to park the camper at a CG with facilities and then drive the LC around for day excursions.
 
marcfj60 said:
I think I want to park the camper at a CG with facilities and then drive the LC around for day excursions.
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I would suggest that you park in Queen and run from there. There are many out of the way places to explore.......One that I would suggest you look at is go west from El Paso Gap junction into crow flats.....Take lunch and enjoy a vast area......You can go to Dell City Tx. from El Paso Gap also great day trip.....

Mike
 
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