El Rito Campground--Group Shelter
1Heads up1 fire 6.8 mi away
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
The El Rito Campground Group Shelter is situated along El Rito Creek and is part of a larger campground, El Rito Campground. The group shelter and campground are located approximately 5 miles from the small village of El Rito. Elevation of the group shelter is 7,600 feet with the predominant vegetation being pinon, cottonwood, spruce, juniper and gambel oak. This is a great place to host your family and friends, graduation parties, organization meetings, and school events. Keep reading
Stay for the day or make it an overnight! Visitors can enjoy hiking and fishing, plus there are also nearby opportunities for sport and traditional climbing . Wildlife (depending on the season) may include mule deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and racoons plus the rare sighting of a bear or mountain lion. The campground is situated along the banks of the El Rito Creek. Typical season of use is May 1 to October 1. Check-in at the site is 1:00 PM on the start date of your reservation. Check-out is 11:00 AM on the last day of your reservation.
Recreation
The nearby creek is great for fishing and enjoying nature. Look for birds flitting around the water in search of their next aquatic meal and splash around in the creek on hot days when the water is lower and you need to cool off. The water from this creek begins in the mountains as snow and rain runoff and travels along the corridor shared with the picnic shelter/camping area. Cross the creek and you will find adventures at the base of the red cliffs. Can you spot the hawk flying overhead and was that a chipmunk that just ran past you?! Please do not climb the cliffs unless you are an experienced rope/harness climber. There are specific climbing areas designed for such adventures in the nearby vicinity.
Facilities
The beautiful, majestic timber shelter was constructed on a concrete foundation in 2018 and is situated in a big grassy meadow 200 feet from the river. Amenities included with your reservation of the group site include 1) a large grill with pedestal at the shelter, 2) seven picnic tables, four of which are located at the shelter, 3) three additional campfire rings situated throughout the site, 4) a vault toilet, 5) one trash receptacle, 6) and space for three large RV trailers and ample tent camping. This is a fenced and gated area reserved exclusively through recreation.gov so you'll not have to stress about whether the site will be available for your special event.
Natural Features
This group shelter/camping area is tucked up in the forest and located next a babbling creek that is popular for fishing and lounging next to when the moment strikes you. The view of the nearby cliffs tops off this great experience in nature.
What the agency tells you
Check-in time: 1:00 PM (this allows time for our recreation technicians to clean the site between reservations)
Check-out time: 11:00 AM
Quiet hours: 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. This reserved site is surrounded by other camping areas and people live nearby as well.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Bands or DJ services are NOT permitted due to the shelter's proximity to nearby campgrounds AND people who live in the immediate area.
There is a five RV limit at this site.
The max. number of people allowed for this site is 75. If your stay includes an event that charges a fee to guests, you will need to apply for a special use permit at least two weeks prior to your scheduled event/stay at the group shelter area.
Do not feed the wildlife--enjoy from a distance. This includes dumping leftover food. This attracts animals.
Please collapse all boxes and other trash to help our recreation technicians with trash removal
Bring you own drinking water--there is no water at the site
Reservation holders must be present at check-in.
Excessive amounts of trash left behind at the group shelter is a time-consuming issue for Forest Service employees. If your group has more than one truckload of trash, please take it with you. This includes empty boxes, bagged trash, broken camping equipment, etc.
A $150 security deposit will be added when you reserve the group shelter. After your stay the $100 deposit will be refunded if the amount of trash left behind is one truckload or LESS, picnic tables have not been removed, fire rings are used and not bare ground, and the area is kept clean and ready for the enjoyment by the next group. We appreciate your cooperation with this new measure to ensure the group shelter and camping area is respected and kept clean.
Please do not leave trash on the ground. Place it in the trash bins.
Please do NOT throw trash in the toilets. Pulling out trash is difficult and disgusting.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…rings situated throughout the site, 4) a vault toilet, 5) one trash receptacle, 6) and space for three…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Meadow
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 · 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
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.
| El Rito Campgroun--Group Shelter | group standard nonelectric | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for El Rito, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 65°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 18°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
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
El Rito Campground--Group Shelter 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 →