Clayton Lake State Park Campground

Dark skies park

Gorgeous park with lots of space for camping. Only stayed the night, so no time for Dino footprints or hiking but the stay was great.

Very nice park 12 mi north of Clayton. No dump station on site but in town at Love's truck stop you can dump for $5. Minimal cell service on top of dam.

I stayed two nights at Clayton State Park in my minivan. The road out from Clayton is a narrow two-lane which is even more narrow, with no shoulders from the main road to the actual park. The roads within the park are in very bad shape. The Ranger said that most of the damage was due to a very bad storm and limited funds to fix them. Even with the poor road conditions, I was able to navigate to most of the campsites in a Honda Odyssey. The lake is a lovely and serene small lake with gorgeous overlooks. It is quiet and peaceful. There were hardly any campers there when I was there. There are vault toilets near all of the campsites but only one building by the Visitor Center has sinks, toilets, and showers. Those facilities were great, with good hot water and no charge for the showers. They were clean and very well-kept. The Dinosaur tracks have a good trail to them that is well-maintained. It is 1/4 mile walk but it is an easy walk and worth the time and effort.

We were worried, based on the only other cell phone coverage rating for this campsite, that we wouldn't have internet out here. It's true that there's virtually no Verizon Wireless coverage (1x Extended is as good as we can get on our cell phones with or without the WeBoost running), but the AT&T coverage is *excellent*. At our last NM state park (Cimarron), only one of us could browse the internet at a time; otherwise, everything would just stall out and nothing would work. So we would take turns working and getting stuff done, lol.

Well, here in Clayton Lake State Park, we are downloading a video to be able to watch offline, we are watching a video on YouTube, and both of us are using the internet on our computers, and it's blazing right along. It's LOVELY. :) So if you have AT&T, you'll be set to go. Sorry to Verizon-only users.

We arrived at 8:15 at night in the dark while it was raining / snowing, and weren't too excited about that, figuring that it would be awful to get set up. Well, the middle sites are pull-thru while the side sites are back-in, but because we're traveling during the off-season, there were plenty of pull-thru sites for us to pick from. The sites are also pretty level, so we didn't have to mess with leveling in the dark. All sites appear to be electric + water which was exactly what we wanted, so it was just a matter of picking a spot and stopping. :) None of them appear to be something you can book online; they're all first-come, first-serve.

There is an area off to the side that appears to be for tents and/or R-Pods only, and the dirt roads back in there are really rough. But in the main campsite itself, the roads are great and there's PLENTY of parking.

Another reviewer said that you can dump in town at Love's for $5 since this state park doesn't have a dump; that is true, except Love's has raised their prices to $10, plus there is no fresh water fill-up there, just FYI. So all in all, a pretty expensive dump. :(

There are vault toilets down the hill just a little ways that are still open; tomorrow, we will go up to the main bathrooms to see if they're still open or have been closed for the season (it's October 8th, so a lot of the northern NM state parks have started closing their bathrooms down for the season). I'll report back on how it goes.

UPDATE: The main bathrooms at the top of the park ARE still open, and no signs are up about them being shut down, leading me to believe they keep them open all year-round. The bathrooms are flush toilet with showers too; the showers are NOT the push-button but rather the regular knob kind, making me think that I could take a nice hot shower that wasn't Navy style. Well, they set the heat level really, really low (the water came out lukewarm-ish? Veering towards cold. I was NOT impressed). Otherwise, these would've been the perfect showers. :-/

The road into the park was r.o.u.g.h. It was supposedly a state road, but the best description of it is a paved washboard road. It is paved; it isn't dirt or gravel. It's just a really, really bumpy road. As you're driving from Clayton into the park, there are two steep drops that you drive down and cannot avoid – it's the only way to get into the park. Think top-of-the-rollercoaster-just-before-you-drop kind of drops. I would *not* want to drive on that road during icy conditions or snow storms.

The town of Clayton is only 12 miles away; we plan on going grocery shopping, buying propane, and doing laundry in the town of Clayton tomorrow. I'll report back on how that goes.

UPDATE: The Ranch Market in town is TERRIFIC! Two big thumbs up. I've never seen such a great produce department (there's someone who takes pride in their work) and their prices are actually quite reasonable. Gladly recommend shopping there.

Buying propane...we kept trying to fill-up with Pinnacle Propane but their drivers were all out filling up tanks for the local farmers, so we couldn't ever get them while they were in. We ended up going out to the KOA and that was...not pleasant. a) The guy has a day job M-F and normally isn't there during the week. b) He'd taken a day off so he could fix a bathroom, and was NOT happy that we were interrupting his plans. c) He bled off our partially full tank so he could then fill it back up with his propane, losing us about 1.5 gallons. d) The cost of the propane was about a dollar more than any other place we've ever bought.

Do NOT use the KOA for propane unless under extreme duress, and make sure to take an empty tank.

We did our laundry at Ty-Dee Laundry, and it was okay. Nothing to write home about but it did the job.

We ate twice at Sí Señor, Tacos and both times, they made snails seem like they were speed racers. Don't eat here if you're in any kind of hurry.

Oh, Clayton Lake is a "Prize Bass Fishing Area" – my husband will happily test that claim out tomorrow. :)

UPDATE: It was too cold to really go fishing; he tried a couple of times but gave up quickly. We were there during a cold snap with wind, fog, and rain (some sleety-snow too) so not great weather.

We walked over to the dinosaur tracks area; I recommend checking this out just because hey, how cool is that, but don't expect anything amazeballs. There's also horseshoe pits and sand with poles so you can set up beach volleyball; during the summer, I bet this place is just hopping. There's also a boat launch area.

All in all, just the great internet alone makes this a wonderful place for us to stay; the pull-through sites just adds that much more love for the park. But take a shower in your own RV. :)

Traveling from Colorado to Florida. Was a great place to stop for night. Was in February so no one there but big sites with water and electricity right on the water. Restrooms very clean. Off route a bit but driving there was beautiful even this time of year.

Stayed here on our way from CO to TX. Sites are beautiful and park itself is tucked away so will have to travel another 15 min off the main road but so worth it.Gravel sites some more level then others. They have both electric and Boondocking sites all are great. If we didn’t have to be back to Denver would have relaxed here for a couple of days. If you enjoy bass fishing this is the place. Would definitely stay again. Rangers are super helpful.

Nice and quiet. No T-Mobile but heard AT&T works.

A hidden gem. I stayed on the south loop down by the cliffs. Small but nice lake. Plenty of open spaces and privacy. Nice facilities. Windy, but kept all the bugs away.

Stayed here on 12 Mar 20. We were looking for a quiet place to stay with a nearby trail to walk the dog and kids. This park met all expectations and the dinosuar tracks were neat. The lake seemed low, but peaceful and we saw a couple people fishing.

We had Sprint 3G 5 bars roaming. Couldn't get local TV channels. There aren't many electric and water hook-up sites and only a handful that are pull-through. Everything worked and the sites were well-maintained and clean. There were only three other campers here, unsure how busy it gets in the warmer months, so you might want reservations to ensure the site you want. Would not recommend bringing in anything longer than what we had (60 ft total length).

No one was at the ranger station when we arrived but they have a very easy self-pay station with clear instructions. The hill coming in to the park and on NM 370 was not that bad. Sadly, we had to leave a day early because the park closed for COVID19.