Peaceful Stay

Stayed 2 nights in the Brushy Point campground. Had the place completely to ourselves. The views were gorgeous, but the spaces in that campground are mainly for tents. The park is close to Chama and its famous Cumbres/Toltec narrow gauge railroad. The small towns in northern NM are nice, and the Brazos Cliffs are within site of the campground. Would like to have stayed a day or two more.

Great Park, But Currently NO WATER

We use this park many times each year, but currently there is a water leak repair/construction FUBAR SNAFU situation❗ There is NO WATER at the sites, the shower house with flush toilets, the dump station. The iffy estimate to get started with the repair is August, but this is a state government job so who knows. There is ONE pit toilet for Blanco campground and ONE pit toilet for Willow Creek campground that involves a little hike. Other than that, we had a great week there.

Arrived to find out no water. Camp host even frustrated. If you go on the website and open announcements it is down the page saying no water. No shower and no water for the trailer. Thank God I added too much water in my trailer. Apparently incompetence rules. The lake is down so far you can’t even get to it. What a waste.

Great Park, However ....

We use the Blanco and Willow Creek campgrounds many times each year. Blanco campground is a loop with camp sites on both the inside and outside of the loop. Before Covid there was a sign at the entrance to the loop that said, inside loop sites left and outside loop sites right. Now the old sign is gone and has been replaced by a DO NOT ENTER sign to the left. But the sites are laid out for clockwise traffic! Some sites are very tight for a large rig to make the turn from counterclockwise traffic to be properly oriented on the site. The camp host does not know why the signs were changed. However, they will escort you in a clockwise direction to your inside loop site. Still, we will be back many times in the future. UPDATE: The 'Do Not Enter' sign has been taken down, but no replacment sign for inside the loop sites go left. 🤬

I Like It

I really enjoyed my stay here. My only real complaint is one that I have with many NM State Parks. The campground roads are not paved and the area is arid and can be breezy. Between the wind and the vehicle traffic, it can get very dusty so that's a constant issue. There are about 250 campsites spread out over about 4 miles and 9 campgrounds. There is a huge variety of campsites. Some well shaded and others with spectacular views. Only 2 campgrounds have water and electric hookups and only 3 campgrounds appear to have any water at all. Showers are only available at Blanco and Salmon Run. None of the campgrounds near the dam have any water at all. All campsites are by reservation only thru Reserve America, which I don't like because of their high fee structure. There are about 15 miles of trails running along the lake and thru the campgrounds. Pretty nice trail system. There's also a trail to El Vado State Park, but unfortunately it's currently closed. I found the park to be clean.

Heron Lake,NM

Great campground with everything from full hookup to no hookups. Clean showers and bathrooms, as well as pit toilets in sites without water, great gravel roads and large sites. The sites across the dam are perfect for boon docking, with excellent wide open views, fairly level pads, picking tables and fire rings. Lake is low, but lots of deer and not many flies nor mosquitoes!

What's Not To Like

Spent a week before the Memorial Day holiday truck bed camping. The park was practically vacant. My wife and I enjoyed beautiful lakeside sunsets, long hikes, campground dinners and amazing proximity to a hot shower and restroom. We paid $10 a night. For $2 more you can get water. For another couple bucks, electricity. Very affordable. Tierra Amarilla is close by. Chama 20 minutes further. I plan to come back. Yes, my wife and I enjoyed roughing it at Lake Heron. Here is my video: https://youtu.be/kt_5G7-04dY