Water Canyon Campground

Really nice campsite. Pretty view with a lot of sunshine. The road was super easy to take my Subaru up; bumps were minimal. This isn’t necessarily a good ‘glamping’ site as there isn’t cell service and you would likely have a difficult time getting an extravagant rig up the road and into a big enough campsite; but considering there’s a nice clean bathroom, a picnic table, and a super nice fire pit/grill set up; I think it’s still a pretty luxurious place to go camping! Especially for the bargain price of $0.00. There’s even some pretty nice country to walk around in just outside the campground!

Stayed here with a passenger vehicle and a tent. Jennifer Blake would stay here again.

We visited Water Canyon Campground for New Year's 2018 and were really impressed with this charming little campground. It exceeded our expectations. We stayed Sunday, Dec. 31st - Tuesday, Jan. 2nd. We choose this site because we live in Albuquerque and wanted a bit warmer weather. It was amazing. 65 during the day with warm sun and clear skies and 30 average at night. The clear night skies were stunning and we had an amazing full moon. We were driving a 2 wheel drive 4Runner with a 12 ft. vintage camper. We had no problems at all getting up the hill although I can see how in rainy or snowy weather it would've been trickier.

We read the reviews that it wasn't really "to the right" so we went straight (which really is a bit left/west) at the day use area and that was wrong. It really is "right" up the hill, it is just not well signed. Once you get up the short hill, the campground is clear. You even see the campground half way up the hill.

This time of year it was quite empty (yeah!), it was only us and one other fella. He was at the top of the campground where we were at the bottom near the second restroom. There was a hill and many trees separating us so we had total privacy even though we picked a site totally in the open so we'd have the most sun. The sites are lovely, some with more trees than others. Some with tent squares as well as trailer spots. Some with multiple tables/benches and would be good for multiple vehicles. We found the campground completely free of trash (yeah!) and pretty clean restrooms. We were afraid we had a bear one night but it turned out to be cows just behind a fence near or campsite. I had no wi-fi reception with Verizon.

We hiked up a trail/road past the group campground (which was closed for the winter) about 2-3 miles as another reviewer recommended. You go through some lovely canyons and it was pretty flat and simple. We had our two dogs and it was pretty rocky and by the time we got home they were a bit tender pawed. We saw two other young men hiking that said had we continued on the road we would've hit baldy point, in sounded like the point would've been about 7-8 miles, too far for our senior pups. The next day we hiked the road that is near the entrance of the campground. It was threw the green gate but there was no signage telling us we couldn't. It eventually, after a mile or so, comes to a "Copper Canyon" sign. You loop left and you get to a marked #10 Trailhead (this trail was pretty strenuous). If instead of using the trail you head you go at the trailhead sign (NW maybe), you quickly dead end into mine shafts which were intriguing. If you went right at the trailhead sign you immediately run into a gate to a old farmhouse that is private property.

I would camp here again and would recommend this campground. It is unexpected forest camping in the middle of a seemingly baron dessert and very accessible. 10 miles or so out of Socorro then 10 miles south on the county road. So easy to find that I would even recommend it to someone simply travelling through Socorro on I-25 that needs to just find somewhere to sleep the night through. There is not much else in this area of NM. We like more private primitive/disbursed type camping so wouldn't come here again when there was a fuller campground, but that a personal thing.

Stayed here in a 12 foot-long Trailer (RV). Raney Weiler would stay here again.

Campground has southern exposure which means there is little shade and it can get windy. #4 and #6 are best sites for shade. I stayed three nights and four days and the campground would empty by 9AM and start to fill again after five PM, so during the day I was by myself. During my time 13 camp sites were occupied and all but two were men--an elderly couple and a women and her two kids. Only one other person stayed more than one night. BTW, one can get a "big rig" up the rough dirt road to the CG because I saw someone do it--impressive.

There are several hiking trails in the area but most require a lot of climbing. The most popular and scenic is unsigned. Walk the road to the group campground and then hike upstream to the southwest. It follows an old dirt road that has since been abandoned.