Clear Creek Group Campground (NM)
1Heads up1 fire 16 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenListed open; its database flags it not open
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – October 31Open May 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clear Creek Group Campground is less than a two hourdrive from the Albuquerque area, and provides relief from the New Mexico heat with the cool shade and refreshing air of the pines and mountains. The group campground is located in the last loop of the Clear Creek Campground, alongside the serene Clear Creek. Keep reading
Recreation
Local streams and the San Gregorio reservoir provide fishing opportunities for anglers, and hikers will delight in the many hiking opportunities in the nearby San Pedro Parks Wilderness.
Facilities
The group campground can host up to 35 people, and has parking for a large bus or RV available. A max of 3 RV's or camp trailers can be used at one time in addition to 3 tents. It’s location is far enough from the individual sites to make the place feel like your own campground. A large ramada with picnic tables and pedestal grill are available for the group area, along with a vaultedtoilet. There is drinking water available and a host on site to answer any questions. The campground opens in May and closes in mid October. This is a popular spot for Albuquerque recreationists, so make reservations early!
Natural Features
Evergreen ponderosa pines and Engelman spruce make up the forest around the campground, a welcome sight for those escaping the heat. The majesty of the Jemez Mountains provides amazing scenery for those inthe campground and for scenic drives through the forest. A variety of wildlife call this place home including black bears, mule deer, elk, and a plethora of bird species.
What the agency tells you
Fire restrictions may exist. Check with the Cuba Ranger District if you are unsure.
A Max of 3 RV's or camp trailers can be utilized within the group area in addition to 3 tents within the prepared tent pads. Please do not block the loop with any vehicles or RV/CAMPERS this is used as an emergency route when needed.
Check out time is 11:00 AM, Check in time is 1:00 PM
Everything else this campground posts · 2
No ATV/UTV/ORV use in the campground. Travel is restricted elsewhere on the forest.
Quiet Hours are from 10:00 PM - 7:00 AM.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…along with a vaultedtoilet. There is drinking water available and a host on site to answer any…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Creek
- Biking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 67th darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 15:23 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
4 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:47 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
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 · 12
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 · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 4
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:47 UTC
- Rio De Las Vacas CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 1.1 mi · 13 of 30 site-nights open
- Clear Creek Campground (NM)Santa Fe National Forest · 1.1 mi · 8 of 24 site-nights open
- Redondo CampgroundJemez National Recreation Area · 15 mi · 91 of 112 site-nights open
- Vista Linda CampgroundJemez National Recreation Area · 20 mi · 3 of 26 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Clear Creek Group | Clear Creek Group Site | group standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Rio De Las Vacas CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 1.1 mi
Clear Creek Campground (NM)Santa Fe National Forest · 1.1 miRio Puerco CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 9.1 miResumidero Camping AreaSanta Fe National Forest · 9.2 miCoyote Canyon Camping AreaSanta Fe National Forest · 12 mi
San Antonio CampgroundJemez National Recreation Area · 13 miFrom Cuba, New Mexico, travel 11 miles east of Cuba on New Mexico State Highway 126.
The campground is located approximately 11 miles from Cuba where lodging, restaurants, and gas stations are available.
The campground is approximately a one and a half hour drive from Albuquerque.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cuba, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 59°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical October night 27°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 moreOutside the published season
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
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
Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) is in New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Teresa Leger Fernandez (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 moneyTeresa Leger FernandezU.S. Representative · New Mexico’s 3rd 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Teresa Leger Fernandez, I’m a constituent in New Mexico’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Group Campground (NM). 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) (Santa Fe 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Group Campground (NM). 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) (Santa Fe 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM), Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Creek Group Campground (NM). 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 Clear Creek Group Campground (NM) (Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com