Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 16 nights read 16:37 UTC
- Sites
- 2All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cedro Peak Camping Sites is a favorite area in the southern portion of the Sandia Ranger District. It is encompassed by ponderosa pine, pinon and juniper trees. Both Cedro Peak camping sites are fully accessible and have plenty of parking. Jay site has a circular turn around drive for those who might bring a small travel trailer. Keep reading
Recreation
Cedro Peak Camping Sites has room for outdoor games as well as access to the best trail system for mountain biking in the Cibola National Forest. A variety of hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding and off-road vehicle trails connect with the camping area. The region features more than 80 miles of single-track and equestrian trails. Mountain biking trails in the area can accommodate intermediate to advanced riders. The trails offer expansive views of the Sandia Mountains to the north, the Manzanos and the Cedro Peak Camping Site. Limited off-road vehicle trails are available as well. Please use Leave No Trace ethics when using your public lands.
Facilities
The campground offers two large, fully accessible group campsites. -Jay can accommodate up to 100 people and 27 vehicles. Rate: $125 per night. -Robin can accommodate up to 150 people and 41 vehicles. Rate: $175 per night. Each site is equipped with grills and tables, some of which are covered by picnic shelters. Large campfire circles are also available. Water and electricity, firewood/charcoal are not available at the site. Accessible vault toilets and bear proof trash receptacles are provided. Bears frequent the area; use appropriate containers for food and garbage. Gate Lock Combination: The combination for the gate lock will be provided in your reservation confirmation email. Have questions? Call the Sandia Ranger District Office, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at (505) 281-3304.
Natural Features
The group campground is located in the Manzanita Mountains at an elevation of about 7,400 feet. It is eight miles south off of I-40. The campground is nestled in a pinon pine and juniper forest, amid the arid, hilly landscape.
Charges & Cancellations
There is a $10 non-refundable reservation fee through recreation.gov
What the agency tells you
To ensure an enjoyable stay for the next visitor, please make sure to place ALL trash in the trash cans provided and leave the site as clean as you found it.
Water and electricity, firewood/charcoal are not available at the site. You may notice water spigots at this site, however the water lines were retired in the mid 2000s due to difficulties with freezing pipes, therefore, bring your own water.
Accessible vault toilets and bear proof trash receptacles are provided. Please use appropriate containers for food and garbage. Food Storage Keeping You and Bears Safe More about Bears and Food
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Please DO NOT park in front of any gates. They must be accessible at all times.
Gate Lock Combination: The combination for the gate lock and restrooms will be provided in your reservation confirmation email. Have questions? Call the Sandia Ranger District Office, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at (505) 281-3304.
Prevent Bug Kill. Obtain firewood near your destination and burn it on-site: Don't Move Fire Wood
For more information about the Cibola National Forest & Grasslands: Cibola National Forest Web Page
Trail Map: Manzanita Mountains Trail Map
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…not available at the site. Accessible vault toilets and bear proof trash receptacles are provided.…”
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 162nd darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, 12 km away
- Patchy color
Full this Saturdayread 16:37 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:37 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“There is a $10 non-refundable reservation fee through recreation.gov” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:37 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 2 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
PINE FLAT PICNIC SITES - A and BCibola National Forest · 1.6 mi
Oak Yucca and Locust Group Picnic SitesCibola National Forest · 2.9 mi
DOC LONG PICNIC SITES - A and BCibola National Forest · 10 miFourth of July CampgroundCibola National Forest · 17 miTajique Campground18 miFrom Albuquerque, drive east on I-40 to Exit 175. Drive south for approximately 4 miles on State Highway 337 (also known as, James McGrane Memorial Highway). Look for the Juan Tomas/242 sign on the east side of the road. Turn left and follow the road until you reach Forest Road 252. Turn left and follow the road for about one mile. Follow the directional signs at the entrance, to Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay.
From the east (Edgewood area) use Exit 175 off I-40. At the bottom of the ramp turn left and go to the light. Turn right at the light. You are now on 333/Old Route 66. Continue until you reach the light at the intersection of State Road 333/66 and State Road 337. Turn left and continue on State Highway 337 for approximately 4 miles on State Highway 337 (also known as, James McGrane Memorial Highway). Look for the Juan Tomas/242 sign on the east side of the road. Turn left and follow the road until you reach Forest Road 252. Turn left and follow the road for about one mile. Follow the directional signs at the entrance, to Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cedro, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 69°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
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay is in New Mexico’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Melanie Stansbury (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMelanie A. StansburyU.S. Representative · New Mexico’s 1st district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationBen Ray LujánU.S. Senator · New Mexico
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMartin HeinrichU.S. Senator · New Mexico
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Melanie A. Stansbury, I’m a constituent in New Mexico’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay, Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 2 sites at Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Cedro Peak Camping Sites - Robin and Jay (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com