Gallo Campground
1Heads uppark alert
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:35 UTC
- A night
- $20From, per site
- Sites
- 294 of them walk-up
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Gallo Campground is located within Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Tucked among the fallen boulders and cliffs of Gallo Wash, the campground offers camping in a rugged environment, surrounded by petroglyphs, a cliff dwelling, inscriptions and a high desert landscape. The area is remote with no services. Please be prepared with plenty of food, water, shade, sunscreen and cold weather necessities. Traveling to Chaco Two roads access Chaco Culture National Historical Park. From the north, Road 7900 turns off of US Hwy 550/44 three miles east of Nageezi and fifty miles west of Cuba. Keep reading
Continue on Road 7900 for five paved miles then turn right onto Road 7950 where the payment will continue for several miles. The rest of the thirteen miles are unpaved. From the south, turn north onto NM Rt. 57 for twenty miles of rough unpaved road. When the unpaved roads are wet (rain, snow, etc.) they can be difficult to traverse, and vehicles can become stuck in thick mud or slide off the slippery road. Please keep in mind that there is no phone service and it is sometimes difficult to get tow service along these roads. Please contact us at 505 786-7014 for the latest road conditions. Campfires in Gallo Campground A fire may be ignited and maintained only by using fuel sources designed and commonly used for warmth or the preparation of food, such as charcoal briquettes or natural firewood. Lighting or maintaining a fire with other manufactured or synthetic materials is prohibited. Marijuana on Federal Lands Posted: May 27, 2022, With the legalization of marijuana in the State of New Mexico, Chaco Culture National Historical Park would like to provide clarification regarding the use and possession of marijuana on Federal lands. The recently passed New Mexico State law, which allows for limited recreational marijuana use under certain conditions, has no bearing on Federal laws which continue to identify marijuana as a Schedule I illegal drug, and prohibit its use. Possession of marijuana or use of any amount of marijuana is still prohibited in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, its facilities, concessions, and campgrounds.
Recreation
The Visitor Center is located one mile from the Gallo Campground which offers a staffed information desk. There is an additional charge for Park entry separate from the camping fees. All campers are required to pay entrance fee at the Visitor Center or present a vaild pass. The Visitor Center offers a brief introductory information, a 25-minute introductory video and a bookstore with many selections of educational materials, books and gift items. After checking in at the Visitor Center, one can drive the canyon loop road where there are six front country and our backcountry hiking trails that lead to ancient cultural sites.
Facilities
Gallo Campground has 32 individual campsites, one of which is designated as handicapped accessible. Each campsite has a picnic table and a fire grate. There are five campsites for RV ONLY and the remaining 27 campsites allow either tent, small RV or travel trailer. Please read details featured for each campsite before reserving. There are two (02) group campsites available to accommodate groups with 10-30 people, tent camping only. Each group campsite has picnic tables and a fire grate. The campground has restroom facility with flushable toilets. There are no showers, hookups, convenience store or food services. There are no cell phone services. Please call 505 786-7014 for the lastest road condition.
Natural Features
Gallo Campground is located in a lowland desert surrounded by canyon walls, arroyos and wash with plenty of southwestern desert plants and brushes, but there are no trees.
Nearby Attractions
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is isolated from various towns and cities. Within two to three hour drive, there are some attractions such as Aztec Ruins, Salmon Ruins, Mesa Verde National Park, El Malpais National Monument, El Morro National Monument, Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Four Corners Monument, Navajo Nation Headquarters and Museum in Window Rock, Arizona.
What the agency tells you
There are no services available, bring plenty of food and water for your visit.
There are no hookups.
Picnic table and fire ring (with a grill) are provided at each site.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Firewood and charcoal are not available in the park. Wood gathering is not permitted.
Drinking water is available at the Visitor Center and at the Campground
Dogs are allowed but restricted in some areas.
Dogs must be on leash at all times and must be kept under control. Maximum leash length is 6 feet.
RV and/or travel trailers must not exceed 35 feet (10.6 m) in length to drive on the roads in the Park. Check for size of limited parking space under each campsite's detail info if camping.
Generator use is permitted only between the hours of: 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Individual campsites are limited to two small vehicles at each site. Few campsites are for RV ONLY and does not have extra space for extra vehicle, and some campsites allow for either tent or small travel trailer or RV. PLease review detailed information on each campsite before reserving. Groups: if group sites are full, please make alternate plans for your overnight stay. Do not reserve multiple individual sites.
All campsites are closed on the following days: Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Check In Time is at 12:00 noon.
Check Out Time is at 11:00 a.m.
Maximum Stay Limits: Camping is permitted for not more than at total of 30 days in any calendar year, with no more than 14 consecutive nights at any one time. Group campsites are limited to 30 days per group, per year and no more than 7 consecutive nights at a time. One individual is limited to two reservations per night.
Campers that do not show up to their site or call the park by 11:00 a.m. on the second day of their reservation, forfeit the remainder of their reservation.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 29 · 2 tent-only, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 41 ft
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets - year round
- Showers
- None at this campground
- “There are no showers, hookups, convenience store or food services.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Dump station
- No
- The agency record says no. recreation.gov’s amenity list says “Dump Station”. The record stands.
- Stay limit
- 30 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- Biking
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Tree cover
- 0%
- Night sky · 51st darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 2
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Park Service says
- None
Fully booked on Sat, Oct 17, all 20 sites takenread 15:35 UTC
recreation.gov lists 28 of the 29 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 20 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 7 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:35 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
These counts cover the 29 reservable sites only. This campground also has first-come sites, and recreation.gov publishes no availability for a site you can’t reserve.
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $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 15:35 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
29 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 29 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. 28 of the 29 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 001 | standard nonelectric | 11 ft | 40 ft | 2,844 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 002 | standard nonelectric | 16 ft | 85 ft | 2,841 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 17 ft | 40 ft | 2,874 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 17 ft | 66 ft | 2,922 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 55 ft | 2,967 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 66 ft | 2,970 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 15 ft | 55 ft | 3,005 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 71 ft | 3,034 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 64 ft | 3,130 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 96 ft | 3,226 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 011 | type not stated | 18 ft | yes | 3,390 ft | ||
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 012 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 46 ft | 3,441 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 013 | rv nonelectric | 37 ft | 46 ft | 3,485 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 014 | rv nonelectric | 40 ft | 38 ft | 3,529 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 015 | rv nonelectric | 35 ft | 31 ft | 3,565 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 016 | rv nonelectric | 41 ft | 31 ft | 3,582 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 27 ft | 85 ft | 3,362 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 17 ft | 66 ft | 3,465 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 66 ft | 3,527 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 85 ft | 3,386 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 64 ft | 3,293 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 64 ft | 3,276 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 64 ft | 3,226 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 3,168 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 030 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | 50 ft | 3,121 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 031 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 50 ft | 3,080 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | 51 ft | 3,041 ft | $20 | |
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | Groupsite 1 | group tent only area nonelectric | 106 ft | 3,101 ft | $60 | ||
| GALLO CAMPGROUND | Groupsite 2 | group tent only area nonelectric | 106 ft | 3,179 ft | $60 |
25 of 29 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Coal MineCibola National Forest · 57 mi
Coal Mine Campground & Picnic AreaCibola National Forest · 57 miOjo Redondo CampgroundCibola National Forest · 61 mi
Clear Creek Group Campground (NM)Santa Fe National Forest · 63 miFrom the North: Driving from Albuquerque or Farmington, NM, drive on Highway 550, exit to County Road (CR)7900 at mile marker 112; drive CR 7900 then turn westbound to CR 7950 which will turn into a dirt road after three miles. Drive thriteen miles of dirt road to reach Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
From the South: Exit Highway 9 to State Road 57. State Road 57 is a rough dirt road for about twenty miles before reaching Chaco Culture National Historical Park. South entrance is not recommended during inclement weather.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Lake Valley, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 68°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 13°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
Gallo 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…convenience store or food services. There are no cell phone services. Please call 505 786-7014 for the lastest road condition.…”