Bureau of Land Management · Carlsbad Field Office · NM
Sunset Reef Campground
The agency doesn’t say how you get a siteIts record carries no access type, so treat it as a place to phone before you drive.
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
3,590 ftElevation
1.8 miWater · an unnamed pond
15.2 miSW of Carlsbad, NM
0%Tree cover
Bortle 4Night sky · 158th darkest of 164 in NM
The place
the agency’s own description
In the agency’s own words
Carlsbad FO. Sunset Reef Campground is a reclaimed well pad with 11 developed campsites
Source: BLM National Recreation Sites · Aug 24, 2026
Phone before you drive
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Booking window6 months outBooking opens 6 months ahead; today unlocks arrivals through April 16, 2027. The agency publishes no reservable season in the record we hold, so the window may close earlier than that.recreation.gov
Runs itBureau of Land Managementthe agency’s record
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
The sign priceBureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
We hold no recreation.gov booking record for this campground, so we can’t say whether a booking fee applies.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s no total to show.
How we know this receipt · 4
Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026
The two totals: Derived by CAMPANAC by adding the agency’s own published nightly rate to recreation.gov’s own published reservation fee. Both components are cited above; the addition is ours and is shown only where every component is known. · Sep 9, 2026
Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026
The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025
Source: BLM National Recreation Sites · Aug 24, 2026
record Aug 24, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate
Where it is
Also near here
Chosa CampgroundCarlsbad Field Office · 2.2 mi
Wilderness Ridge Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 22 mi
McKittrick Ridge Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 25 mi
Dog Canyon CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 25 mi
Frijole Horse Corral CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 27 mi
Mescalero Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 27 mi
Chosa CampgroundCarlsbad Field Office · 2.2 miWilderness Ridge Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 22 miMcKittrick Ridge Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 25 miDog Canyon CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 25 miFrijole Horse Corral CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 27 miMescalero Wilderness CampgroundGuadalupe Mountains National Park · 27 miSource: BLM National Recreation Sites · Aug 24, 2026
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
Overnight42°Partly Cloudy
Saturday59°Sunny
Saturday Night42°Mostly Clear
Sunday69°Sunny
NWS forecast for Whites City, NM
Source: National Weather Service, MAF forecast office · Oct 17, 2026
Typical weather
Typical October night 52°F, day 75°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
100°32°20°
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.
Measured at: CARLSBAD CAVERNS, NM (USC00291480), 4 miles away and 845 ft higher
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Sunset Reef Campground 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 →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: Bureau of Land Management publishes no season and no closure for this campground, and it takes no bookings we can read. That’s a gap in the record and not a locked gate.
Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026
Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate · Sep 9, 2026
Cell signal: the BLM’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Nearest place of any size: Whites City, NM, 4.4 mi SW (a census designated place). Straight line.