Percha Dam State Park Campground

Our pricing per night reflects the New Mexico State Park pass rate, details can be found here https://travelswithpickles.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/the-best-value-around/.

Percha Dam State Park is this odd state park located on the Rio Grande River in between Deming and Truth or Consequences New Mexico. The access from I-25 is fairly easy although all of our navigation systems routed us in the back way upon arrival. The drive was pretty so that was not a big deal.

Now for the park itself, it's just ODD. Spaces are weird. You know how most parks have you arranged in parking lot order, not so at Percha. Spots are on the diagonal and so while you don't have neighbors are on the sides of your rig, getting in and out of a spot can be quite tricky, We picked a 95 foot space intentionally, unintentionally picking the ADA spot for the campground (luckily it wasn't a placard required space). 95 feet is more than long enough to accommodate The Gump with the patio down and Lana unhitched.

There is NO WAY that spot measured 95 feet! We left two days early just to ensure we could actually get out of the spot before new campers pulled in for the weekend in front and behind us. The spot was level and well marked but be warned unless your rig is on the shorter side, you will have trouble accessing spots.

The park is fairly empty during the week but jammed packed on weekends. Noise level was nothing we even noticed on the weekends though so I wouldn't consider it a drawback. There is considerable noise from the dam but it quickly fades into the background once you realize it's not traffic noise from I-25.

The park itself has no ranger on sight, although the park is routinely patrolled by rangers throughout the day. The camp host was friendly and wiling to help out anyone who needed assistance. There is one sight with full hook-ups, site 1, all other electrical hook-ups are 50 amp with water. There is also oasis camping closer to the river and dam. The views in general are meh. Looking west from our site we had a lovely view of someone's backyard and several neglected dumpsters. Looking east we had a lovely view of nature, birds, the dam, and the mountains.

So why the low rating you might be wondering? Well, the gold standard for state parks is Fool Hollow Lake State Park in Arizona so all other state parks are compared to Fool Hollow. We bounced around numbers between us for two weeks, the honest number is actually a 2.5 not a 3. The Pros: pretty, rural setting with well marked spaces and good reliable 50amp service. The Cons: spot orientation, the view onto someone's backyard is disconcerting, the terrain is NOT big dog friendly being full of burrs, stickers, etc., and no dump station on site.

We will not be returning despite not being miserable when we were there. Spaces are too tight and personally I cannot imagine trying to get into a space if there were already people on either side. There really isn't anything wrong with the state park, it just feels like an after thought by the state and a little neglected.

Cell service at the park is excellent, despite what the initial impression maybe upon pulling in. We never had to break out the booster and neither of us ever had a dropped signal. So while AT&T wasn't showing 5 bars of service, the reception was clearly five bars.

We met up with some friends here for a couple of days of actual camping. You know, sitting around doing nothing, listening to music, maybe playing some games. We did walk the dogs around and saw the river, the playground, and a couple of trail heads. There were vault toilets at the tent/dry camping areas, and two buildings with flush toilets, one of those with a couple of showers. There are ADA sites (site 2 is one of them) plus parking at the shower house and one shower with bars, a bench seat, and lower shower head.

We each had sites with water and electrical hookups for only $14 the first night. We planned late in the day so the spots were only available for walk-ups. If you go this route, bring cash. For our second night, we booked online and were charged $28 a night. Without warning, they added on fees for the dogs and for booking online. So if the website, which is very easy to use, shows that there's availability just show up and pay cash.

There were lots of sites for RVs and tents. All the RV sites were parallel pull-thrus. Site 1 had a sewage hookup but that was the only one I saw. No dump station here either so plan accordingly.

This is a relatively small SP with both reservation and first come/first serve sites. Our large rig (40') would likely fit into most of the easy to access pull-through sites. Sites are gravel, level, and include a covered picnic table and outdoor grill along with water and electricity. The Reserve America website marks many of the sites incorrectly as 50 amp, so if that matters to you be sure to check the campsite detail page because only a few of these were actually 50 amp, and only one site has sewer (site 1 has both 50 amp and sewer).
There are some short and easy to follow trails around along with the usual amenities including trash and some recycling, but note that there is no dump station (it's available a few miles down the road at Caballo Lake SP). This park was unstaffed while we were here and the camp host was away for the holidays. The park does occasionally smell a bit of fertilizer from the nearby fields, and while it wasn't bad while we there, it could be worse at the wrong time of year. Another reviewer mentions the goatheads (small spikey seeds/weeds), and yes, they are everywhere... we didn't go on a walk without picking them up.
The only other useful note about reserving sites in NM SP campsites in advance is that while their daily rates are quite reasonable... $8 disperse camping, $10 primitive, $14 water/electric, and $18 FHU (all of these are -$10 with a NM SP pass, which is $225 for out-of-state residents), there are booking fees on Reserve America.... $4 for 1 night, $8 for 3 nights, & $12 for 4 nights or more. First come/first serve sites can pay cash at the self-pay kiosks and you can pay onsite for a single night on a reservation site if it's available.

Because it’s winter (currently mid-February) we’ve been staying down in the southwest part of the US - mostly NM State Parks but we did make a trip over to Tucson for the holidays.

It wasn’t until we pulled into Percha that I realized how much I was missing trees. I am a mountains and pine trees and alpine lakes sort of gal, so no matter how big the saguaro grow, it just doesn’t do it for me. But I have to wait for springtime before I can start heading north again, so here I am, stuck in the cacti region of the world.

And then, we pulled into Percha. There were TREES! Glorious TREES! And a very pathetic river (more like puddles combined together, honestly) But walking out of the park and along the river, there were these paths through this forest that reminded me somewhat of back East.

If you’re into birdwatching, this is heaven on earth for you. In fact, we met several RVers who’d come specifically to watch the birds (which I’m not surprised by - there were so many and they were so beautiful). I’m not into birds so I couldn’t tell you much more than, “Oh, I saw a really pretty green bird today!” but even to me, the birdwatching there was fun.

Not surprisingly, there were feral cats there also - three that I counted that during the whole two weeks that I was there, I never saw interacting with any humans. They tended to get into cat fights at three in the morning 🙄 and one time, they started that cat fight directly underneath our trailer, so that wasn’t fun. We have a cat who goes in and out as she pleases (except at night - she doesn’t go out after dark) and she was definitely in our trailer more than usual at this SP because she doesn’t pick fights unless she’s forced to.

The showers were...interesting. For the first ten days or so, my husband and I kept asking each other, “Is the AC on in your side of the bathrooms?” It would be cold outside (it’s February, after all) and FRIGID inside. Surely, surely they aren’t running the AC in February, right?

Wrong.

We finally asked the camphost about it and he went to the ranger about it, and they turned off the AC and turned on the heat (at a low level but still, it was warmer inside of the bathrooms than outside - FINALLY!) I just wish we’d gone to the campground hosts sooner. Taking a shower in a frigid building during the winter is not my idea of fun.

The pressure of the shower heads wasn’t great, but there was plenty of warm water, AS LONG AS you took a shower after ten in the morning. The water is solar heated, so give it time to warm up. I tried one day at eight in the morning and could never get it even marginally warm.

Someone else mentioned that there isn’t a dump station here; it’s true. However, there’s another SP just about five miles down the road or so, and there’s one there, so we just pulled out of Percha, dumped at the other SP, and then were on our way. Not a big deal to us.

The internet here was AWESOME. No problems whatsoever streaming multiple devices at the same time.

The spots were a little odd (the park was set up in a circle - think one big daisy chain) but we’re not in a big rig (23’ TT) and we don’t move on the weekends if we can help it (so that the parks are never full to the brim when we get somewhere, especially during the off-season) so we had no problems whatsoever getting in and out.

We would totally stay here again - not to mention that the fishing was great down at the other SP and we ate off the catches several times throughout our stay. 😀 (The other SP, although close by, isn’t nearly as pretty of a campground, so we preferred to stay at Percha).

I’d love to come back when it was warmer and the river was higher. I’d bet it’d be just gorgeous then.

PS For those who have kids, there’s a really nice, updated playground here that they’d enjoy.

This is a VERY small state park, cute but small. We are n a 40ft DP & we fit in #4 without difficulty but any larger rig & you would be hard pressed to get in. There are some reservable spaces (yes #4 is) & some first come 1st served. I suggest reservations becUse they will not let anyone take a reservation site without a reservation even if it remains empty. Just FYI.
The showers look amazing but they are push showers & you get about 40 seconds of tepid hot water. So we suggest you shower in rig or f possible, there is no dump station here you have to go to sister campground down the road to dump (but you do get to dump for free).
Another FYI you CANNOT come into the park from the north the way GPS says you must come down canal road. Bridge is only rated for 15 tons.

The drive in from Rte 25 takes you looping past a working farm, perhaps hatch Chile pepper and over a wooden bridge. The fee for non-NM pass holders is $14- per night. The camp host explained at length I could only stay 1 night; that to stay a 2nd night required calling a reservation desk which adds a fee from $8- to $12- to use the reservation service plus of course the actual campsite fee. As others have already stated there’s no dump station on site and rigs are parked in a circle nose to rear bumper.
I’d chosen #18 and the 30w receptacle appeared to be damaged: chipped and burned. I checked #19 and pulled forward much to the chagrin of the RESERVATION holder in #20. The sites on this side of the circle have trees and a bit of a forest behind, the other side’s sites are in total sun. It’s August and well over 95° today, all the camping is being done on this side.
Each site has a Ramada style roof over the picnic table and a stone wall built surrounding the space on one side and the back creating a bit more privacy than I’ve seen in other parks.
As for wildlife, hummingbirds are plentiful!

The goat head thorns are horrible, they are everywhere. Late April early May no water in the Rio Grande, facilities are good and well taken care of. I’ll come back for the trees they don’t have at Caballo State Park.

This is a very nice New Mexico park. It is pretty small, by but considering it is part of Caballo Lake State Park, this is more like another campground within that park. The goat head thorns are everywhere, so watch your dog's paws. The bathrroms are very clean and well taken care of. Verizon and AT&T work well here, but AT&T is super fast for streaming and work, 123 down/6 up.

Another great NM state park. Grassy areas, private ramadas with picnic table and a fire pit.

We stayed at site #3 for 8 days to save money before moving on to Arizona. The bathrooms are clean and the kids playground was decent but the goat head thorns pretty much ruined it. Our little ones would get them stuck to their shoes and clothes and scream bloody murder when they’d get poked or step on one. Not much to do or see in the area but not bad at all. I wish we would have booked site #1 which was a full hookup (and the only one I saw at the campsite) so it was a pain to keep having to go to the dump site at Caballo Lake State Park to dump.