Ben Lilly Campground
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own sentence, quoted below
- A night
- FreeNo camping fee
The place
the agency’s own description
In the agency’s own words
This campground is an ideal area to escape the summer heat.
Nothing to book until it reopens
Ben Lilly and Willow Creek Campground Closure.
The closure above is the reading. We hold no availability snapshot for this campground, so there’s no thirty-night strip to draw under it.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
What the agency said · 1
Ben Lilly and Willow Creek Campground Closure. The Gila National Forest is issuing a temporary closure order for the Ben Lilly Campground and the Willow Creek Campground, in effect from 6 a.m. on July 21, 2026 through January 1, 2027 (or until rescinded). This order serves to protect public health and safety as monsoonal flood events have become hazardous in this area.
U.S. Forest Service · posted Jul 21, 2026
Filed as emergency from the agency’s own words “public health and safety”. That reading is ours.
Open within 60 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Aeroplane Mesa CampgroundGila National Forest · 8.9 mi · walk-up
- Cosmic Campground International Dark Sky SanctuaryGila National Forest · 20 mi · walk-up
- Black Jack Group CampgroundApache National Forest · 37 mi · walk-up
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Bighorn CampgroundGila National Forest · 18 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Mogollon, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 64°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 15°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Ben Lilly Campground is in New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Gabe Vasquez (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: B. See every public-lands vote →