Deerhead Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $32From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 10Open April 1 through October 10
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Deerhead Campground is located in the Lincoln National Forest in Cloudcroft, New Mexico at an elevation of 8700 feet. This is a heavily forested campground with large pine trees which provide plenty of shade. Wildlife viewing is a great opportunity here as this forest is home to a large population of Elk. Roads within the campground are paved. Keep reading
Recreation
This is a prime location for wildlife viewing due to the large population of Elk in the Lincoln National Forest. This forest spans 1,103,441 acres and is a great place for hiking, caving, picknicking, horseback riding, hunting and sightseeing. The Trestle Recreation area is less than a 2 mile drive from Deerhead campground.
Facilities
This campground offers standard sites, accommodating both tent and RV camping. Amenities include picnic tables, grills, fire rings, drinking water spigots, vault toilets and paved parking spurs.
Natural Features
This location provides great views of the White Sands National Park salt flats. The Lincoln National Forest offers a variety of trails, including the Osha Trail, the Little Apache Trail, and the Old Cloudcroft Highway Trail.
Nearby Attractions
There is a variety of stores to shop at roughly 20 miles from the campground in Alamogordo, NM. Contact Info Between 05/15/2026 and 09/26/2026 this location is staffed. Please call (575) 682-1518 to speak with local staff. From 09/27/2026 to 05/09/2027 this location is unstaffed. Please call (877) 444-6777 for general information.
What the agency tells you
Extra Vehicles: Most sites can accommodate a maximum of 1 extra vehicle for an additional charge of $10.00 per night, which is paid at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.
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.
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect the Lincoln National Forest by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. For more information, please visit http://www.dontmovefirewood.org/
Everything else this campground posts · 11
The stay limit at this campground is 14 days.
Drinking water is available.
Please do not approach any wildlife.
Maximum RV length is 25 feet
Check in after 2pm, check out by noon.
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).
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.
For more information on the Lincoln National Forest, please visit Home | Lincoln National Forest | Forest Service
Pets must be on a 6' leash.
Cancellations must be made 48 hours prior to the start of your reservation.
Limited cell service is available at this location.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 25 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…fire rings, drinking water spigots, vault toilets and paved parking spurs. Natural Features This…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…picnic tables, grills, fire rings, drinking water spigots, vault toilets and paved parking spurs.…”
Around the campground
- Night sky · 136th 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 · 13
What you actually pay
“Extra Vehicles: Most sites can accommodate a maximum of 1 extra vehicle for an additional charge of $10.00 per night, which is paid at the campground if you did not pay for the Extra Vehicle Add On.” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $32 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 · 6
rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites
All 19 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. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 1 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 2 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 3 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 4 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 5 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 6 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 7 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| A | 8 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 10 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 11 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 12 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 13 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 14 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 15 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 16 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 17 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 18 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 19 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
| B | 9 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | $32 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Sleepy GrassLincoln National Forest · 0.4 miSlide Group CampgroundLincoln National Forest · 0.7 miSleepy Grass CampgroundLincoln National Forest · 1.1 mi
Upper Fir Group Area1.2 mi
Black Bear Group Area1.6 miFrom the West side of Cloudcroft, turn South onto NM310 and travel 1 mile. The campground entrance will be on your right, just past the turnoff for the Ranger Station.
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 night of the open season: typical April night 31°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 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
Deerhead Campground 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 →