Coal Mine
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 15All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Coal Mine Campground is situated in the upper portion of the Cibola National Forest in west-central New Mexico. Visitors can enjoy hiking the Lobo Canyon Trail, as well as picnicking and scenic driving. This campground is located near the Continental Divide Trail as well as Mt. Taylor. Keep reading
Recreation
The Lobo Canyon Trail begins in the campground and leads hikers access a network of trails in the area. Some trails are still under constuction. Visitors also enjoy picnicking in the surrounding area.
Facilities
The campground offers more than a dozen sites for tent or RV camping. Each site can accommodate up to 10 people. Utility hookups are not available. Parking spurs are paved. Each site is equipped with a table and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is not available in the campground; visitors must bring their own supply.
Natural Features
The campground is located northeast of the town of Grants at an elevation of 7,400 feet. It lies on the top of a hill, with campsites situated on gently sloping ground. A forest of mature pine, juniper and oak trees surrounds the campground.
Nearby Attractions
The El Malpais National Monument and Conservation Area can be accessed from various points within a short drive of the campground. Its extensive, ancient lava flow landscape and other scenic features draw tourists year-round. Points of interest within the monument and conservation area include the Northwest New Mexico Visitor Center, Sandstone Bluffs Overlook and La Ventana Natural Arch. A portion of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail parallels the Zuni-Acoma Trail as it passes through the monument. The city of Grants is about 12 miles from the campground, offering dining and lodging options. The city also boasts a mining museum with gem and mineral displays and a self-guided tour into an underground world.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service charge will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. For full details see NRRS Reservation Policy.
What the agency tells you
Drinking water is not available
Click here for more information on the Cibola National Forest
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 15
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire ring with grill. Accessible vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is not available in…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…Accessible vault toilets are provided. Drinking water is not available in the campground; visitors must bring their own…”
Around the campground
- Hiking
- Scenic drives
- Night sky · 123rd 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“A $10.00 service charge will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
15 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 15 mapped sitesAll 15 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. 15 of the 15 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| COAL | 001 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 79 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 002 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 79 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 003 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 97 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 004 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 101 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 005 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 76 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 006 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 76 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 007 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 93 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 008 | rv nonelectric | 25 ft | 54 ft | 1.7 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 009 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 54 ft | 1.7 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 010 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 121 ft | 1.7 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 011 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 118 ft | 1.7 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 012 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 75 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 013 | rv nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 014 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
| COAL | 015 | rv nonelectric | 20 ft | 88 ft | 1.6 mi | $10 |
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
Coal Mine Campground & Picnic AreaCibola National Forest · 0.0 miJoe Skeen CampgroundEl Malpais National Conservation Area · 21 miOjo Redondo CampgroundCibola National Forest · 24 mi
El Morro CampgroundEl Morro National Monument · 39 miMcGaffey CampgroundCibola National Forest · 47 miQuaking Aspen CampgroundCibola National Forest · 49 miFrom Grants, take New Mexico State Highway 547 for 10 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lobo Canyon, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 14°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Coal Mine 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 →