Black Bear Group Area
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Black Bear is perched atop the scenic Sacramento Mountains of south-central New Mexico, near Alamogordo and Cloudcroft. The site is surrounded by the aromatic pine trees and aspen groves of Lincoln National Forest. The group area is conveniently connected to a network of hiking and biking trails. Bring your camera and binoculars for the chance to spot elk, deers, birds, and even black bear. The black bears are arguably the most celebrated wildlife in the area due to the fact that the original Smokey Bear was found here. While battling a fire in 1950, firefighters rescued a burned bear cub clinging to a scorched tree in Lincoln National Forest. The bear was adopted by the US Forest Service and became the real-life mascot for forest fire prevention. Keep reading
Recreation
Evening skies are often clear of clouds - bring a telescope for stargazing. The campground is surrounded by a series of hiking trails. A popular hike is the Osha Trail, which is a 2.5-mile loop.
Facilities
Whether for a family reunion or a large social event, Black Bear is a convenient location for groups up to 70. No water is provided at this site, but it is available at Sleepy Grass Campground from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Natural Features
Set 9,000 feet above sea level in the Sacramento Mountains, Black Bear is in a pine forest area overlooking the desert valley of the Tularosa Basin. The basin stretches 6,500 square miles between the Sacramentos and the San Andres Mountains. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (575) 682-1518.
Nearby Attractions
The campground is a mile from Cloudcroft, a quaint tourist village with New Mexico's only standing railroad trestle. It's also a quarter mile from the Rim Trail, which is popular for mountain biking, hiking, and horseback riding. Other nearby trails are open to ATV enthusiasts.
What the agency tells you
Black Bear Group Area accommodates up to 70 people.
Call 575-682-1518 prior to arrival to get the lock combination.
There is no public phone.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
There is no water at this site; water may be obtained at Sleepy Grass Campground until Labor Day.
Fire Restrictions: Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed.
Reserved Sites will be held until check out time (NOON) the day following your arrival date. Sites must be occupied by the checkout time of that following day to hold a reservation or the site will be forfeited and released to other guests. Once your reservation start date has begun, neither the Recreation.gov Contact Center nor the campground manager will be able to modify your reservation.
Refunds: Refund requests made through www.recreation.gov will be charged a $10 processing fee. This fee is retained by the reservation service contractor along with the non-refundable reservation fee. All requests for the return of the non-refundable reservation fee and the cancellation fee will be declined by the campground concessionaire as they did not receive these fees (these are the fees retained by the reservation contractor, a different entity).
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Check in after 2pm, check out by noon.
For more information on the Lincoln National Forest, please visit Home | Lincoln National Forest | Forest Service
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 35 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…convenient location for groups up to 70. No water is provided at this site, but it is available at…”
Around the campground
- Night sky · 128th darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 11
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
| BLAC | 001 | group standard area nonelectric | 35 ft | 3,625 ft |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sleepy GrassLincoln National Forest · 1.5 mi
Deerhead CampgroundLincoln National Forest · 1.6 miSleepy Grass CampgroundLincoln National Forest · 1.9 mi
Upper Fir Group Area2.6 miIn southeast New Mexico, approximately 20 miles east of Alamagordo. From Alamagordo take US 82 east. Go 16 miles. Just before Cloudcroft, turn right (south) on NM 130. Go 1.4 miles. Turn left (east) on Forest Road 24B. Go .5 miles. Black Bear Group area is on right (south) side of road across from Aspen Group Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cloudcroft, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 60°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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 Junes are colder than the June line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Black Bear Group Area 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: A. See every public-lands vote →