Cochiti Campground
1Heads up1 fire 21 mi away
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:08 UTC
- A night
- $15–$20Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 80All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cochiti Recreation Area is located in Sandoval County, New Mexico, within the boundaries of the Pueblo de Cochiti Indian Reservation. The lake offers two public recreation areas: Cochiti on the west side of the lake and Tetilla Peak on the east side. Both sides offer spectacular scenic views of the water and surrounding mountains. The Cochiti Dam is one of the ten largest earth-fill dams in the United States, and also one of the largest in the world. The lake derives its name from the Indian Pueblo on the Cochiti Reservation. Keep reading
Recreation
Our quiet lake is an ideal location for all paddle, wind surfing, and sailing craft. The lake is also a popular fishing spot for species such as bass, crappie, walleye, pike, catfish, sunfish and trout. Cochiti Recreation Area has a popular, family friendly, swim beach Day Use area for public enjoyment. It is a fee area, $5 per vehicle, but the cost is covered by the campsite fee for visitors staying in the campground. Additionally, the Cochiti picnic area has 21 covered picnic sites with a large group site that can be reserved by calling the main office. Cochiti Day Use Areas are open from April 15th to October 15th.
Facilities
The campground consists of four loops. Juniper Loop campsites have electric hookups and some have water. Elk Run and Ringtail Loops are non-electric and have community water spigots. All sites in Buffalo Grove Loop have water and electric hookups. The Cochiti boat ramp is open year-round and is accessible by a paved road. The ramp has four concrete lanes for loading and unloading.
Natural Features
Cochiti Lake sits at 5,343ft in elevation and is nestled in the foothills of the Jemez Mountains. Our high desert environment is dominated by juniper, pinon trees, and mixed grasslands. There are many opportunities for wildlife viewing. Four osprey nesting platforms have been erected around the lake to provide nesting sites, as well as viewing opportunities. On the east side of the lake, deer, coyote, river otters, rabbits, beavers, and the occasional bear are often sighted.
Nearby Attractions
Cochiti Lake is five miles from Tent Rocks National Monument, which has fascinating geological formations.
What the agency tells you
NO ALCOHOL IS ALLOWED
Check-in Time is 3:00pm. Check-out Time is 2:00pm
All camping units or vehicles must be registered
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Juniper Loop guests must bring a 100 foot hose; spigots are shared between sites
The campground does not meet accessibility standards
A campground attendant is on duty
This is a no-wake lake
No cutting of trees, dead or alive, is allowed
Wood Campfires are not permitted
Off-road vehicles are not permitted
ALCOHOL IS NOT PERMITTED
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 80
- Hookups
- 48 electric, 34 water
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 11
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are non-electric and have community water spigots. All sites in Buffalo Grove Loop have water and…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Paddling
- Swimming
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 144th darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 4
- Fall color · reported 5 days ago, 22 km away
- Patchy color
4 of 80 sites open on Sat, Oct 17read 15:08 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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 · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$20 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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:08 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
80 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 80 mapped sitesAll 80 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. 80 of the 80 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BUFFALO GROVE | 051 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 92 ft | 1,059 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 052 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 81 ft | 1,174 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 053 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 92 ft | 1,104 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 054 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 81 ft | 1,240 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 055 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 86 ft | 1,302 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 056 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 86 ft | 1,386 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 057 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 119 ft | 1,494 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 058 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 119 ft | 1,570 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 059 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 90 ft | 1,489 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 060 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 86 ft | 1,403 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 061 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 76 ft | 1,328 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 062 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 76 ft | 1,284 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 063 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 68 ft | 1,231 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 064 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 113 ft | 1,309 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 065 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 73 ft | 1,256 ft | $20 | |
| BUFFALO GROVE | 066 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 68 ft | 1,294 ft | $20 | |
| ELK RUN | 035 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 102 ft | 942 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 036 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 81 ft | 1,002 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 037 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 92 ft | 1,021 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 038 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 68 ft | 1,076 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 039 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 91 ft | 1,112 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 040 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 68 ft | 1,142 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 041 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 1,197 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 042 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 79 ft | 1,201 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 043 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 79 ft | 1,161 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 044 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 79 ft | 1,084 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 045 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 81 ft | 1,004 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 046 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 919 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 047 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 73 ft | 859 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 048 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 76 ft | 813 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 049 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 59 ft | 837 ft | $15 | ||
| ELK RUN | 050 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 59 ft | 890 ft | $15 | ||
| JUNI | 01 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 100 ft | 2,768 ft | $15 | |
| JUNI | 02 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 82 ft | 2,804 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 03 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 82 ft | 2,885 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 04 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | yes | 99 ft | 3,069 ft | $15 | |
| JUNI | 05 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 82 ft | 2,968 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 06 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 73 ft | 3,009 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 07 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 88 ft | 3,127 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 08 | standard electric | 36 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 73 ft | 3,053 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 09 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 91 ft | 3,193 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 10 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 104 ft | 3,383 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 70 ft | 3,398 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 12 | standard electric | 34 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 101 ft | 3,483 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 13 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 116 ft | 3,577 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 14 | standard electric | 34 ft | 15/30/50 amp | yes | 70 ft | 3,463 ft | $20 |
| JUNI | 15 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 109 ft | 3,591 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 16 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 57 ft | 3,483 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 17 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 101 ft | 3,516 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 18 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 57 ft | 3,438 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 19 | standard electric | 34 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 71 ft | 3,376 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 20 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 97 ft | 3,280 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 21 | standard electric | 34 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 99 ft | 3,257 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 22 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 77 ft | 3,162 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 23 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 96 ft | 3,175 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 24 | standard electric | 36 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 77 ft | 3,093 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 25 | standard electric | 32 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 78 ft | 3,032 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 26 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 90 ft | 3,091 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 27 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 67 ft | 2,944 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 28 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 111 ft | 2,867 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 29 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 67 ft | 2,883 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 30 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 62 ft | 2,822 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 31 | standard electric | 50 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 139 ft | 2,733 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 32 | standard electric | 40 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 62 ft | 2,776 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 33 | standard electric | 36 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 130 ft | 2,636 ft | $20 | |
| JUNI | 34 | standard electric | 38 ft | 15/30/50 amp | 71 ft | 2,736 ft | $20 | |
| RINGTAIL CAT | 067 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 103 ft | 468 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 068 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 86 ft | 550 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 069 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 71 ft | 490 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 070 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 71 ft | 422 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 071 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 80 ft | 354 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 072 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 80 ft | 328 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 073 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 83 ft | 372 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 074 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 77 ft | 464 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 075 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 77 ft | 540 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 076 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 100 ft | 625 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 077 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 106 ft | 493 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 078 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 86 ft | 562 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 079 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 101 ft | 678 ft | $15 | ||
| RINGTAIL CAT | 080 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 105 ft | 603 ft | $15 |
25 of 80 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Tetilla Peak1.2 mi
Juniper Campground (NM)Bandelier National Monument · 11 mi
Ponderosa Group Campground (NM)Bandelier National Monument · 13 mi
PalizaSanta Fe National Forest · 18 miPaliza Family CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 18 mi
Paliza Group CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 18 miFrom Albuquerque, New Mexico, take Interstate 25 north to exit 259. Turn west on State Route 22 and proceed through Pena Blanca to the park office and recreation area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Cochiti Lake, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 74°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 20°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
Cochiti Campground 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 →