Parks Ranch Campground

My husband and I stayed here with our 32 ft TT. We originally wanted to drive to the actual campground that are the GPS coordinates listed here but it was pretty rough and many large rocks, it's a good ways in from the hwy. But we found a really nice flat spot just in a little bit from the hwy. the coordinates are: 32.1044 -104.4236. Lots of lizards and jack rabbits. We enjoyed this spot because no one else was there and it was great hiking and biking trails. Once you go in, if you want, keep going straight back and you will run into a little gorge, absolutely beautiful.

We pulled our 20ft vintage airstream to this site. It's about a mile of rocky dirt road, so we went very slowly and took us about an hour to get to the site.
There looks to be 2 "official" sites with fire rings but we saw spots that looked like other people had pulled off the road and camped. Also looks like most people do tent/van camping here.
You can faintly hear the highway from this spot, but you can't see it.

If only you could get to the primitive campsites. The problem is that the road leading up to it is so full of dual ruts that it makes it impossible to reach. It is not even practical to straddle on the side due to the large rocks there. We did end up staying in a site that is close to the entrance of the main road of Highway 62 though. We did not stay at the primitive campsites, but instead at the beginning of the road leading to it. We are in a 37 foot Class A but I do not see any Vehicles making it down that road unless they are actually four by fours.

Parks Ranch is a primitive campground - it has no amenities and no hookups. Including no paved road to get there. The mile or so of dirt road to get there from US-62 is deeply rutted and rough going in dry conditions, and a veritable swamp when it gets wet! Regardless, we successfully towed our 25ft travel trailer down there - even if it did take 4WD! We also picked up a few scratches from some thorny bushes on the way down - you've been warned!

If you survive the drive down, you'll reach an area to park. Although perfect for tent camping (several cleared areas just behind a knee-high metal-wire fence), there's also space for smaller trailers, vans or truck campers. Just 6 miles from White's City, the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, this was a great base for exploring Carlsbad.

This is boondocking at its best - tranquil, peaceful (except for some birds and coyotes) and isolated. Also, no hookups or amenities at all - except for open skies for your solar panels! However, we had excellent cell signal - download speeds of 58Mbps on AT&T, 54Mbps on Verizon and 17Mbps on T-Mobile.

Great place to crash for a night or two. Sunrise/sunset is beautiful here. No trees, so it can get pretty windy at times. Road to tent camping is manageable for vehicles without trailers or RVs. RV’s can camp near entrance though. Cows are nice to look at.

Believe this is CLOSED. When we pulled in Off the road there was a big sign the said “no camping beyond this sign” and what looked like the remnants of the road has BIG piles of gravel over 50 ft or so. There was barbed wire everywhere and a dozen or so carcasses strewn about that had been skinned - looked like coyotes and bobcats.

A rancher pulled in and asked if we were looking for the “new campground.” Said they built a new campground at MM 9. Sure enough at mile marker nine there is a road and a new “campground” (big fenced in flat lot) called Chosa Campground. Free stay, guessing 14 day limit.

Mortons on the Move is wrong. This campsite is still open, I drove to it a few days after they posted that. They simply drove about 50ft too far, right past the road on the left that goes to the campground. It must have been night because its pretty hard to miss. If you see the no camping sign back up 50' and look left. The road is rutted, but if its dry it is easy to straddle them. How often do you get free camping with caves to explore?!

What can you say it's free up to 14 days. Now there is two parts to this BLM. There is the front which has room for 2 rigs then there is the second which is about a mile of the main road (room for about 2 or 3 if it's small enough). Keep in mind if you go that route make sure you go when there has been no rain because it's a tough deep grooved road to the camp area. Once you get there it's magical!! Stars for days in the evening.

The road back was manageable in our xterra as long as we drove slowly. It’s a very open campground with no amenities, meaning not much privacy. Perks are you can literally see the National Park from the campground, the cool caves at the campground, and it’s free! We saw tent campers and sprinter vans back there, but closer to the hwy there are a few spaces for bigger rigs.

The road in, as of late March, is fine. There are some deep ruts (easily straddled) and it’s rocky, but my low-clearance van had no issues, definitely not the worst road I’ve been on recently! Rain/mud would be an issue, but if it’s dry, no problem.

The campground itself is fine. It’s pretty much two camping areas, but there are several sites on the road in - technically the 10 mile dispersed area - and a few we saw if you just stay on the road past the campground - not sure how far that road goes, but we saw some fires rings and flat sites that could hold bigger rigs.

Would definitely stay here again if I return to the area.

Location for Carlsbad caverns can’t be beat! As someone else said, you can literally see the entrance from here. Some wind but that’s everywhere in the southwest at certain times of year