El Morro Campground
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A public campground shut with nobody having to say why isn’t good enough.Ask why it’s closed →
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own notice
- Sites
- 9In the agency’s record
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
El Morro operates a nine-site campground 7 days/week, year-round. First come-first served. Each site has a graveled tent pad, picnic table and ground grill for fires. During the warmer months, water is available at spigots that are centrally located along the campground loop road. Once the overnight low's begin to reach freezing temperatures, water is turned off for the season. There are no hookups for RVs. The length limit on all motor homes is 27 feet overall. One site, #5, is handicapped accessible.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
Around the campground
- Night sky · 61st darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopens
Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays
The closure above is the reading. We hold no availability snapshot for this campground, so there’s no thirty-night strip to draw under it.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 2
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 3
What the agency said · 1
Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays
National Park Service
Open within 150 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Rolfe C. Hoyer CampgroundApache National Forest · 94 mi
- Paliza Group CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 106 mi · 2 sites
- Clear Creek Group Campground (NM)Santa Fe National Forest · 108 mi · 1 site
- Rio De Las Vacas CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 109 mi · 15 sites
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Coal Mine Campground & Picnic AreaCibola National Forest · 38 mi
Coal MineCibola National Forest · 39 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for El Morro Valley, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January 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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
El Morro 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: B. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 4
The agency’s notice doesn’t say what closed it. That reading is ours. The draft to the agency asks what closed El Morro Campground, what reopening it would cost and what date they’re working towards. The draft to Congress asks them to put the same question in writing and to fund the answer.
- The office that runs itEl Morro National MonumentNational Park Service unit
- The member who votes the moneyGabe VasquezU.S. Representative · New Mexico’s 2nd 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 found out at the gate, or a week before the trip. 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 what remains to be done at El Morro Campground, what it costs, and what date they’re working towards.
Subject El Morro Campground: what it would take to reopen
To the National Park Service, El Morro National Monument: I was planning to camp at El Morro Campground in New Mexico and found it closed. The notice says: "Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays" (https://www.nps.gov/elmo/planyourvisit/conditions.htm, read Oct 17, 2026) Could you tell me what closed El Morro Campground, what has to happen before it reopens, and what date you’re working towards? If the answer is funding or staffing you don’t have, please say so plainly. Sent about El Morro Campground (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to find out what reopening El Morro Campground would cost, and to treat the deferred-maintenance line as the thing that decides it.
Subject El Morro Campground is closed (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico)
Dear Gabe Vasquez, I’m a constituent in New Mexico’s 2nd district. I went to camp at El Morro Campground, El Morro National Monument, New Mexico and found it closed. The notice says: "Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays" (https://www.nps.gov/elmo/planyourvisit/conditions.htm, read Oct 17, 2026) The notice doesn’t say what closed it, which is worth asking about on its own. A campground on public land going dark with no stated reason and no reopening date isn’t something the public should have to guess at. Please ask the National Park Service, in writing, what reopening El Morro Campground would cost and where that work sits on their own list. And when their budget comes to a vote, treat the recreation and deferred-maintenance lines as the thing that decides whether these 9 campsites are open next season. 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 El Morro Campground (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to find out what reopening El Morro Campground would cost, and to treat the deferred-maintenance line as the thing that decides it.
Subject El Morro Campground is closed (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico)
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I went to camp at El Morro Campground, El Morro National Monument, New Mexico and found it closed. The notice says: "Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays" (https://www.nps.gov/elmo/planyourvisit/conditions.htm, read Oct 17, 2026) The notice doesn’t say what closed it, which is worth asking about on its own. A campground on public land going dark with no stated reason and no reopening date isn’t something the public should have to guess at. Please ask the National Park Service, in writing, what reopening El Morro Campground would cost and where that work sits on their own list. And when their budget comes to a vote, treat the recreation and deferred-maintenance lines as the thing that decides whether these 9 campsites are open next season. 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 El Morro Campground (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to find out what reopening El Morro Campground would cost, and to treat the deferred-maintenance line as the thing that decides it.
Subject El Morro Campground is closed (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico)
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I went to camp at El Morro Campground, El Morro National Monument, New Mexico and found it closed. The notice says: "Park closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays" (https://www.nps.gov/elmo/planyourvisit/conditions.htm, read Oct 17, 2026) The notice doesn’t say what closed it, which is worth asking about on its own. A campground on public land going dark with no stated reason and no reopening date isn’t something the public should have to guess at. Please ask the National Park Service, in writing, what reopening El Morro Campground would cost and where that work sits on their own list. And when their budget comes to a vote, treat the recreation and deferred-maintenance lines as the thing that decides whether these 9 campsites are open next season. 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 El Morro Campground (El Morro National Monument, New Mexico) via campanac.com