Red Canyon (NM)
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 25 of the next 30 nights read 15:33 UTC
- A night
- $10–$12Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 4140 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 2 notices
In the agency’s own words
This campground in the Manzano Mountains offers a variety of amenity and site types to fit your needs. Tucked into the pines at 7,600 feet of elevation are a mix of horse corrals, single sites, double sites, all with picnic tables and grills, and a group picnic day use area. Explore both the upper loop, with amenities for horses, and the lower loop with lots of sites to find the campsite that fits your needs. Keep reading
Recreation
Communal areas are available at this campground. The lower loop has a communal fire ring and the upper loop has a large day use area as well as access to trailheads. Horse riding and hiking are popular in this area.
Facilities
All campsites have picnic tables and grills. Many sites also have fire rings. Several sites are "double" sites with multiple sets of amenities. The campgrounds are further equipped with bear safe trash receptacles and vault toilets in shared areas.
Natural Features
Many sites are partial shade due to the tall tree cover across the campground.
What the agency tells you
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.
There is no water at this campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 41 · 11 equestrian
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…with bear safe trash receptacles and vault toilets in shared areas. Natural Features Many sites are…”
Full this Saturdayread 15:33 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $10–$12 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 15:33 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
42 records · the site map
All 42 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 42 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 41 of the 42 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Lower | 01 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 02 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 03 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 04 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 05 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 06 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 07 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 08 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 09 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 10 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 11 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 12 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 13 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 14 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 15 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 16 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 17 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 18 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 19 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 20 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 21 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 22 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 23 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 24 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 25 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 26 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 27 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Lower | 28 | standard nonelectric | $10 | ||
| Scan and Pay | EQ ScanPay | type not stated | $10–$12 | ||
| Scan and Pay | Standard S&P | type not stated | 1.5 mi | 199 ft | $10–$12 |
| Upper | 01 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 02 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 03 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 04 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 05 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 06 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 07 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 08 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 09 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 10 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | 11 | equestrian nonelectric | $12 | ||
| Upper | Group Picnic | day use | $15 |
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.
25 of 42 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Manzano, NM
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Red Canyon (NM) is in New Mexico’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Melanie Stansbury (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyMelanie A. StansburyU.S. Representative · New Mexico’s 1st 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
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Melanie A. Stansbury, I’m a constituent in New Mexico’s 1st district. I tried to camp at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 40 of the 41 campsites the agency files at Red Canyon (NM), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Canyon (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Canyon (NM). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Red Canyon (NM) (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 40 of the 41 campsites the agency files at Red Canyon (NM), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Canyon (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Canyon (NM). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Red Canyon (NM) (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Red Canyon (NM), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 40 of the 41 campsites the agency files at Red Canyon (NM), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 3 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Red Canyon (NM) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Red Canyon (NM). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Red Canyon (NM) (Cibola National Forest, New Mexico) via campanac.com