Hopewell Lake Campground
1Heads up1 fire 15 mi away
- Right now
- ClosedThe agency’s own sentence, quoted below
- A night
- $24When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 32In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hopewell Lake Campground sits next to its scenic namesake lake between Tres Piedras and Tierra Amarilla in northern New Mexico. Visitors enjoy horseback riding, hiking, fishing and canoeing. Keep reading
Recreation
The 14-acre lake is perfect for canoeing and is regularly stocked with rainbow and brook trout. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail goes through the campgound, and is popular with horseback riders and hikers.
Facilities
The campground has 31 camping sites. There is also a group day-use shelter and group overnight campsite, both available by reservation. Horse corrals and water troughs are available at two campsites. Vault toilets are provided. Currently (May 2024) there is NO water. Please bring your own water. First-come, first-served sites are available.
Natural Features
Hopewell Lake is a small, man-made lake, set high in the Carson National Forest at an elevation of 9,500 feet. A forest of conifer and aspen trees covers the area and offers partial shade in the campground. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (928) 537-8888.
What the agency tells you
Standard Single Family sites: Recreation Use Fee allows ONE camping unit ONLY.
Extra Vehicles: Cannot be paid for in advance - upon arrival coordinate with the host for payment and where to park.
Late Arrivals: campers are not considered a "no-show" until 24 hours after arrival date check in time. Our policy is that your site will not be released before that.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
FIRST COME FIRST SERVE sites must be booked in person. DO NOT call to determine availability, as they are only available on-site.
Bears frequent the area: please obey all food storage rules and regulations. Check with your host for details.
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN WATER - water is NOT available at the campground.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Click here for more information on the Carson National Forest.
Opening and closing dates are weather permitting, please call 928-537-8888 for more information.
Off-road vehicles are allowed in the area, but must be trailered in and out of the campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 1 group, 2 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 30 of 32 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…troughs are available at two campsites. Vault toilets are provided. Currently (May 2024) there is NO…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…are provided. Currently (May 2024) there is NO water. Please bring your own water. First-come,…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 31st darkest of 164 in NM
- Bortle 2
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:16 UTC
Closure of Hopewell Lake Campground/Day Use Area, Portion of Continental Divide Trail.
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
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 · 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 · 4
What the agency said · 1
Closure of Hopewell Lake Campground/Day Use Area, Portion of Continental Divide Trail. Rebabilitation of Hopewell Lake recreation facilities will prompt a closure beginning August 17, 2026.
U.S. Forest Service · posted Aug 17, 2026
Filed as construction from the agency’s own words “Rebabilitation”. That reading is ours.
Open within 60 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Rio Chama CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 34 mi · walk-up
- Rio De Las Vacas CampgroundSanta Fe National Forest · 58 mi · 15 sites
- Clear Creek Group Campground (NM)Santa Fe National Forest · 59 mi · 1 site
recreation.gov availability, read 16:16 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
33 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 33 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 32 of the 33 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Campground | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 126 ft | 1,359 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 002 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 117 ft | 1,350 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 003 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 69 ft | 1,270 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 004 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 69 ft | 1,204 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 005 | standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 99 ft | 1,136 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 006 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 72 ft | 1,209 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 007 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 72 ft | 1,201 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 008 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 121 ft | 1,060 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 009 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 121 ft | 1,065 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 010 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 124 ft | 1,178 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 011 | standard nonelectric | 18 ft | 124 ft | 1,065 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 012 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 94 ft | 1,184 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 013 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 94 ft | 1,097 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 014 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 122 ft | 1,208 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 015 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 122 ft | 1,097 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 016 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 286 ft | 869 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 017 | equestrian nonelectric | 45 ft | 228 ft | 1,059 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 018 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 228 ft | 1,275 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 019 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 120 ft | 1,523 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 020 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 120 ft | 1,632 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 021 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 121 ft | 1,692 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 022 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 138 ft | 1,564 ftPlacer Creek | $24 | |
| Campground | 023 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 85 ft | 1,797 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 1,799 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 025 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 88 ft | 1,885 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 026 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 122 ft | 1,908 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 027 | standard nonelectric | 31 ft | 67 ft | 1,927 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 1,873 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 029 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | 88 ft | 1,786 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 030 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 88 ft | 1,699 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | 031 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 78 ft | 1,824 ft | $24 | |
| Campground | GS2 | group standard nonelectric | 21 ft | 187 ft | 1,737 ft | $125 | |
| Day | GS1 | day use | 30 ft | yes | 859 ft | 220 ft | $100 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 33 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Aldo Leopold HouseCarson National Forest · 15 mi
El Rito Campground--Group ShelterCarson National Forest · 21 mi
MogoteRio Grande National Forest · 25 miMogote - Juniper Group Camping SiteRio Grande National Forest · 25 mi
Aspen Glade (Rio Grande National Forest, CO)Rio Grande National Forest · 26 miFrom Taos, New Mexico, take U.S. 64 about 40 miles west. The campground is on the south side of the road.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ensenada, NM
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
Hopewell Lake 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 →