U.S. Forest Service

Fourth of July Campground

Reservable, and full this SaturdayEvery one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and the record lists no site held back for a walk-up. read 15:40 UTC

We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →

Right now
Taking bookingsSites offered on 12 of the next 30 nights read 15:40 UTC
A night
$10From, per site
Sites
18All of them booked ahead

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices

In the agency’s own words

Located just outside of the Manzano Mountain Wilderness in the Mountainair Ranger District sits Fourth of July Campground. Here, at the mouth of Tajique Canyon, visitors come to see the largest stand of Bigtooth Maples in New Mexico and enjoy the wooded campground and nearby trails. The campground has a mix of first come first served sites as well as reservable sites. The Albuquerque Trail, Crimson Maple Trail, and Fourth of July Trail are easily accessed from the campground and offer recreation opportunities. Keep reading

Recreation

Birding, hiking, and horse riding are popular activities in and around the Fourth of July area.

Natural Features

Many sites and communal areas offer shade from the various maple trees that turn bright oranges and reds in the autumn months.

What the agency tells you

Rule

During First Come First Serve season of October through March, the campground may close periodically due to unsafe weather conditions. While the campground may be open year-round, these weather conditions may dictate when the campground is accessible and the gate opened. Please call the ranger station ahead of time at 505-847-2990 to see if the gate is open during this time period.

Rule

There is no water at this campground.

Tents and rigs

Sites
18
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Shade
16 of 18 sites
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Full this Saturdayread 15:40 UTC

How full the weekend is nationally.

OpenBookedClosedNot reservable

Every one of the 5 sites on offer is taken this Saturday, and on three midweek nights after it as well. read 15:40 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t

Booking windowThrough November 2Bookable now through November 2, 2026, the end of the reservable season. On November 1, 2026 at 10 AM ET, availability opens through May 1, 2027.recreation.govAdd to calendar (.ics)
A night$10plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule
A weekend$28DerivedFriday and Saturday, everything includedours, from the lines above
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
Watch for a cancellation

Watch this campground

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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Sat, May 1 2027 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov ↗

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 12

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
A night$10
Camping$10
Rates for the season the campground is in now, May 1, 2026 to Nov 2, 2026.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
One nightDerived$18
A weekend, Friday and SaturdayDerived$28

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.

If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 15:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

19 records

All 19 records

Up to

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 18 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.

Gallo1standard nonelectric$10
Gallo10standard nonelectric$10
Gallo11standard nonelectric$10
Gallo12standard nonelectric$10
Gallo2standard nonelectric$10
Gallo3standard nonelectric$10
Gallo4standard nonelectric$10
Gallo5standard nonelectric$10
Gallo6standard nonelectric$10
Gallo7standard nonelectric$10
Gallo8standard nonelectric$10
Gallo9standard nonelectric$10
HostHosthost pad$10
Mosca13standard nonelectric$10
Mosca14standard nonelectric$10
Mosca15standard nonelectric$10
Mosca16standard nonelectric$10
Mosca17standard nonelectric$10
S&PStandard S&Ptype not stated$10

The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It names it a host pad. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.

Getting there

the agency’s directions · the phone number
The phone505-847-2990
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

The weather

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

The land, and who answers for it

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 12 of the next 30 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.