Pancho Villa Campground

This was a quiet (at least when we were there) park. Sites 1-8 are reservable and at least some of those are up against the highway. All others are first come first serve. All sites have water and electric hookups and a covered picnic table. It appeared as though there were actually 4 sites that would share one picnic table - for us 50a through d. We were never quite sure how it should work, but as the park was not full, it didn't really matter. There isn't much shade in the park. Bathrooms have showers (free) and appeared to be brand new. They were spotless. The visitor center is quite nice, with a history of the Pancho Villa raid. There is also a little history museum across the street. Mexico is 3 miles down the road and there is a parking lot on be US side if you want to walk across. There is a self serve car wash in town that will fit an RV if you need a bath! Not much else to do here. We have AT&T and our service varied from one bar of 4G that was quite fast to suddenly being 3 bars of roaming to no service at all.

I didn't find this park particularly appealing (to me anyway) since there are very few trees and camping is basically on a dirt site. I am assuming most people camp here for the warmer weather and perhaps to cross the border. Heard good things about the Pink Store and the border is easily accessible as you can park your car nearby and cross on foot. If I camped here again, it would be with the intention of going across the border.

I visited the Visitor's Center/Museum and that was very interesting.

The layout is weird, it took a couple circuits for me to figure out how to get into the site I wanted. Then there are a few A-B-C-D sites which are intended for a few folks camping together (I think) where it's not immediately obvious how one is supposed to park. There are two bath houses and one shower in each. One thing I've enjoyed quite a bit are the birds. Mourning doves and roadrunners all over the place. Fun to watch. It's a good place to stay for a quick jaunt across the border.

A previous reviewer referred to this as an "odd" little park. That's being polite. It's dusty, unattractive, confusingly laid-out, poorly signed, poorly maintained. There's some sad-looking museum exhibits which portray the relatively unimportant skirmish between the man who called himself Pancho Villa and American General "Black Jack" Pershing. If you're a history buff, this might appeal to you.

It's easy to find the park once you're in Columbus. Follow signs. If you have a New Mexico annual camping permit the place is dirt cheap. Pun intended.

The main reason to visit Columbus, NM, seems to be a convenient border crossing into Mexico for low-cost prescription drugs and dental work. Other than that, there's not much reason to stay here. I have met full-time RV'ers who shuttle back and forth in 2-week intervals between this park and Rockhound, about an hour north. Rockhound is a delight: well-maintained and attractive. This place is neither.

ATT cell service is by way of Mexico, so be sure to put your phone in airplane mode if you don't want very expensive roaming charges. ATT Signal strength seemed adequate. Didn't test Verizon.

Disclosure: I drove in, found the camp host (no mean feat!) got a map (whose relationship to the territory seemed tenuous,) poked around, and left. I didn't actually stay here.

A bit confusing on arrival, but once you settle in and figure out the location of the historic buildings and memorabilia, as well as the best viewpoint in the area, this campsite grows on you. We have returned twice, not only because we loved crossing the border and spending time at the 'must see' Pink Store, but the quietness at the park can grow on you if you let it. We have met some lovely people (some of whom are now lifetime friends) on our visits to this park, probably because everyone seems quite relaxed and has time time shoot the breeze while staying here.
If daytime traffic noise is a concern, try to get a site away from the highway.
Take the time to visit the museums both in the park and in the town of Columbus where there is an ecclectic mix of displays depicting the history of the area.
See my own review at: http://www.happyrvers.com/new-mexico.html

This is a great little park close to the Mexican border (not much to see if you go across except the Pink Store- $5 to park at the border).
Sites are clean and level and we were welcomed by the camp host.
Park was only 2/3 full so had lots of sites to choose from, there are several excellent sites located at the south end of the park but all are good.
We were on the road side so had some traffic noise but it was minimal.
There is no wifi and cell coverage was pretty weak but manageable.
Learned a bunch about the Mexican revolution and Pancho Villa's invasion on the USA.

Lots of interesting history and bldg. Columbus very small but a couple of good restaurants. Sites level some odd hookups at some of the sites. Camp hosts and rangers helpful. Bathrooms were nice Hot showers. No AT&T. Borderland Cafe and library have free WiFi

If you like the desert and not a lot of people then this is your campground. The rates vary from primitive ($4) to site with water ($10) to site with water and electric ($14) per night. It is adjacent to the very small town of Columbus, New Mexico and approximately 3 miles from the Mexican town of Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua which seems to be a safe afternoon adventure.There are two museums in town: 1. at the campground that centers around General Pershing's foray into Mexico and 2. a railroad and cowboy museum across the street from the campground. There are several nice restaurants in town but they are all closed by 6pm.

This state park is nothing fancy, but the price, clean restrooms and pull thru sites make it a winner to us. Here are the PROS: they do have a total of 63 sites: 6 are water only, 57 water/electric sites incl 8 are 50 amps and 49 sites with 30 amps. Of all the sites in the park there are only 6 reservable sites (30 amp/water). The rest are first come first serve. We were here for a Thursday and Friday night in January and the park never completely filled up. There is a double sided dump site with non-potable flush water avaiable. The park has 2 comfort stations aka bath houses. The one I checked out was clean, well maintained and had 2 showers + 2 toilets on the ladies side. The price is $14 for the electric/water sites and $10 for the water sites only. It was pretty quiet at night, but the road to the Palomas border crossing runs along the eastern side of the campground. We stayed in site 41 on the west side and slept well. To us one of the cool things was that the park/campground includes a museum commemorating the raid on Columbus and Camp Furlong on 9 March 1916 by Pancho Villa (a mexican general) and the pursuit by the US Army under General Pershing started here too. In the middle of the campground are still some of the surviving buildings of Camp Furlong like the judge advocate office (Jag) incl the jail and the Camp Furlong HQ. Other historical "leftovers" are a ramp used to grease the first vehicles to ever be used by the Army, a marker for the Army's first ever airfield.... So it is camping in the middle of history.
Now a few CONS, not deal breakers to us, but some people might look at them as negatives: first this place is in the desert: it is often windy and and the ground is packed dirt/gravel. It can and will get a bit dusty. The layout is a to say the least confusing. Without a map of the Park it is kind of hard to get the picture. There is a map available af the office. I will post a picture (on the second page, make a screenshot and blow it up, if there are no actual map available). Only 6 sites are reservable and the reservation site charges an extra $4 PER DAY, if you choose to do so. There is one gas station in town (it does have diesel) and a Family Dollar store (3.5 miles down the road, right at the border). I have seen 2 restaurants, the old train depot (that is now a history museum too) plus I have seen signs for the library, an American Legion post plus the post office. So come prepared, stocked up with food and a full tank since the next town with stores/gas stations in Deming and about 30 miles north of here and there is nothing, but a border patrol check point (every car going north is stopped) between Columbus and Deming.
THINGS TO DO: As in things to do other than the two museums there is not much. I walked along the dirt roads in a big loop in the desert around the town, but that is it. There is short trail in the park that leads to the top of the one and only little hill for miles. Also noteworthy is that said hill is also a botanical garden covered in desert plants with clearly marked trails to the top. The other option is to drive down to the border and walk across. We did, we parked on the shoulder of a side street along the Family Dollar. The parking lot across that said side street is a pay lot ($5). We walked across, never got checked going to Mexico. On the way back we had our passports scanned on the Americsn side. We do not speak spanish, but had no problems. We went to the Pink House (they have coupons for free drinks at the museum of the State Park). The food was okay (we live in Texas, lol), the service was good and the atmosphere was nice and clean. The wandering Mariachis during lunch were fun. The Pink House is one huge souvenir and handicrafts store intermixed with the restaurant. Not as cheap as in a not so touristy setting, but not as much as the same meal in the states. They and the pharmacy we visted took dollars. There are plenty of dentist offices in town too - no appointments needed. We felt perfectly safe in the few blocks we wandered through.
At the campground the cell service during the day worked okay for streaming (we use a Verizon hot spot, but have no booster) to watch the morning news and the internet was fine too. But at night we gave up on streaming and used our antenna with the build in booster - we got about 6 stations in english and 6-8 in spanish. The internet was way slower at night. Here are the numbers from 9 pm on a January Friday night: download at 1.48 Mbps and the upload was 10.1 Mbps according to the speed test.

Museum was closed groceries only to be found at the border crossing a few miles away a family dollar clean bathrooms but showers closed Border wall lights up the night sky