Water Canyon Picnic Area
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 24 of the next 30 nights read 15:55 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
At the base of the Water Canyon Recreation Area sits a picnic ground nestled in the Magdalena Mountains. Four first come first served picnic sites have tables and grills that can be walked to from the shared parking area with a vault toilet. In addition, there is one group picnic shelter that is available for reservation. The group picnic shelter includes six picnic tables, one serving table, and one large pedestal grill. Keep reading
Recreation
Facilities Vault toilets, a shared gravel parking area, four walk-to picnic areas, one large group picnic shelter, trash receptacles, and informational kiosks are available on site.
Natural Features
Mountain views. Access to trails. Shaded areas.
Nearby Attractions
Mesa Trail #013 is one of the first trails located up the road beyond the picnic area. In addition, Water Canyon Campground sits uphill of the picnic area by following the gravel road into the Water Canyon Recreation Area. Campsites and trails await here as well.
What the agency tells you
All picnic sites, including the group shelter, are walk-to sites. All parking is available in a shared gravel lot that may hold approximately five cars. Walking along a gravel path is necessary to reach picnic sites.
Cell reception may vary, please be prepared.
Water Canyon Picnic Area is open year-round, but weather may impact access to the picnic area. Highest usage is often April through September.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Use of the first-come, first-served picnic areas and shared facilities requires the payment of a day use fee. Day use fees on the Cibola National Forest are $5 and may be paid in cash on site or by purchasing a Cibola National Forest Site Pass. Reservation and use of the group picnic shelter is included in the $35 reservation fee.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
Something open on 24 of the next 24 bookable nightsread 15:55 UTC
The agency files 1 record here and marks it 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 · 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 · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:55 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records
All 1 records
| Picnic | Group Picnic | day use | $35 |
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.