Rio Bravo Group Shelter
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 26 of the next 30 nights read 15:59 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rio Bravo Group Shelter is located in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The group shelter is located along the Rio Grande with boat access to the river. The group shelter is available year-round on a first-come first-served basis. The shelter is reservable from 11AM on the day of a reservation until 10AM the following day. Keep reading
Recreation
Rio Bravo Group Shelter is located in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The group shelter is located along the Rio Grande with boat access to the river. The group shelter is available year-round on a first-come first-served basis. The shelter is reservable from 11AM the day of a reservation until 10AM the following day.
Facilities
Rio Bravo can accommodate a group of 40 visitors with 10 picnic tables and 3 grills. This site has electricity. There are no RV hook ups at this site. In addition to the group shelter, there is a full bathroom with running water, sinks, showers, and flushable toilets. This shelter and restroom meet ADA requirements. Parking is allowed in the front of the group shelter across the road in the large parking areas. A maximum of 15 vehicles are allowed with the cost of the group shelter. Parking must NOT interfere with other visitors and must not be at the other individual’s campsites unless the additional site is paid is purchased. Camping must be confined to the group shelter area and must not spill over into individual sites. There is a small boat launch at the camp ground where boats/rafts must be carried to (vehicles can not back down the ramp). Responsible party should check in with the camp host upon arrival.
Natural Features
Rio Bravo Group Shelter is located in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The group shelter is located along the Rio Grande with boat access to the river. The group shelter is available year-round on a first-come first-served basis. The shelter is reservable from 11AM the day of a reservation until 10AM the following day.
Nearby Attractions
Rio Bravo is near river, hiking, and climbing access points within the Gorge. Other attractions nearby include the historic town of Taos, having restaurants and the conveniences of a small town, the UNESCO World Heritage Area of Taos Pueblo (please check Taos Pueblo for hours or operation, prices, and visitation requirements), and a variety of vineyards and a brewery located in the Embudo Valley.
What the agency tells you
Rio Bravo Group Shelter is operated by the Bureau of Land Management. It is located in an area with no cell phone reception and limited amenities. Please come prepared with the items you will need and remember to Leave No Trace.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group, 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Accessible Swimming
- Biking
- Boating
- Canoeing
- Climbing
- Cultural Activities
- Guided Interpretive Walks
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Kayaking
- Mountain biking
- Non-Motorized Boating
- Paddle Boating
- Paddling
Full this Saturdayread 15:59 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedNot reservable
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Thu, Oct 22. read 15:59 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
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 · 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 15:59 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites
All 1 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. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Rio Bravo | Rio Bravo Group Shelter Overnight | group shelter electric | $40 |
Getting there
the phone number
The weather
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
The land, and who answers for it
a letter you can send
Who can change it · 2
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.
- 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 Rio Bravo Group Shelter, New Mexico
Dear Ben Ray Luján, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Rio Bravo Group Shelter, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Rio Bravo Group Shelter are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Rio Bravo Group Shelter keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rio Bravo Group Shelter. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Rio Bravo Group Shelter (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 Rio Bravo Group Shelter, New Mexico
Dear Martin Heinrich, I’m a constituent in New Mexico. I tried to camp at Rio Bravo Group Shelter, New Mexico, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Rio Bravo Group Shelter are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Rio Bravo Group Shelter keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Rio Bravo Group Shelter. I’m asking you to put it to the Bureau of Land Management 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 Rio Bravo Group Shelter (New Mexico) via campanac.com