Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites)
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 28 of the next 30 nights read 15:23 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located just outside Silver City, the Little Walnut-Gomez Peak picnic grounds provide a pleasant day use area for small or large groups and individuals/families. The area is generally open from 8:00 a.m. until sunset during spring, summer and fall; winter hours vary according to weather conditions. The Little Walnut West Group Area can accommodate up to 50 people, with parking for 10 vehicles. Facilities include eight (8) tables, three (3) pedestal grills, vault toilets and trashcans. The Little Walnut East Group Area can accommodate up to 75 people, with parking for 15 vehicles. Facilities include 10 tables, one (1) serving table, four (4) pedestal grills, vault toilets and trashcans. For all group use areas, no firewood is available and camping is prohibited. Keep reading
Recreation
The popular Gomez Peak/Little Walnut Trail System can be accessed from the Little Walnut Group Sites. Numerous loops of trails can be hiked from this location and is a popular attraction for mountain bikers and hikers alike.
Facilities
The Little Walnut West Group Area can accommodate up to 50 people, with parking for 10 vehicles. Facilities include eight (8) tables, three (3) pedestal grills, vault toilets and trashcans. The Little Walnut East Group Area can accommodate up to 75 people, with parking for 15 vehicles. Facilities include 10 tables, one (1) serving table, four (4) pedestal grills, vault toilets and trashcans Natural Features The Little Walnut Group Sites offer views of Gomez Peak and is surrounded by a Ponderosa and Pinyon-Juniper landscape. Deer, squirrels and a variety of birds can often be seen at the site.
What the agency tells you
Fire restrictions may be implemented during fire season and may restrict your ability to use the wood/charcoal grills. Please contact the Silver City Ranger District for up to date information, (575) 388-8201.
Discharge or lighting of any type of fireworks is strictly prohibited
Shooting of any firearms, including air guns/paintball guns, in any of the picnic areas is prohibited.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Pets are allowed at the facility, but must remain on a leash. Please be courteous and pick up after your pet.
Use of ATV’s within the picnic ground is not allowed
ALL CONFETTI USE IS PROHIBITED.
Speed limit within picnic grounds is 10 mph.
Excessive consumption of alcohol which leads to disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- Birding
- Hiking
- Mountain biking
Something open on 28 of the next 28 bookable nightsread 15:23 UTC
The agency files 2 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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 · 13
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
recreation.gov availability, read 15:23 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records
All 2 records
| Little Walnut East | East Group | day use | $50–$75 |
| Little Walnut West | West Group | day use | $50–$75 |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Upper End CampgroundGila National Forest · 14 miMesa CampgroundGila National Forest · 15 miSapillo CampgroundGila National Forest · 15 mi
Rocky Canyon CampgroundGila National Forest · 23 miLittle Walnut Group Sites can be accessed from Silver City by driving north on Little Walnut Road from US Highway 180 for approxiamatley 5 miles.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Little Walnut Village, NM
Typical weather
Typical October night 47°F, day 74°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 30°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 Junes are colder than the June line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
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
Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) 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 · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Gabe Vasquez, I’m a constituent in New Mexico’s 2nd district. Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites), Gila National Forest, New Mexico carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) (Gila National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites), Gila National Forest, New Mexico carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) (Gila National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites), Gila National Forest, New Mexico carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Little Walnut (Group Picnic Sites) (Gila National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com