Bosque Redondo Park

Fellow traveler, I write this review for not only future campendium users, but for posterity writ large. Myself and my traveling companion found this supposed gem (4+ stars, pretty good!) and decided to extend our day of driving 2.5 hours in order to camp in a place with some amenities. It turned out we were jettisoned into some cruel circle of Dante's hell. You too can visit the underworld by either:

1. Death by desanguination in the form of voracious mosquitos with an apparent intent to take back their rightful home from crazed humans. I am literally not kidding. In the seconds it took to exit the safety of the car a morass of mosquitoes barged inside the cool interior like some crazed force of Orocai storming the gates of Helm's Deep. I am legitimately surprised that the mosquitoes did not fly away with the car under the combined vertical force of their horrifying wispy wings. In short, unless you are a professional beekeeper with associated accesories (mainly thinking of a beekeeping suit) you will likely die a horrible and largely insignificant death at the hands of bugs whose number can only accurately be described as a googolplex. I think this quote from NPR about the anatomy of the common mosquito should suffice as deterrent.

"The mosquito's mouth, also called a proboscis, isn't just one tiny spear. It's a sophisticated system of six thin, needlelike mouthparts that scientists call stylets, each of which pierces the skin, finds blood vessels and makes it easy for mosquitoes to suck blood"

2. This park, it seems, serves a different purpose from the parks of my youth (and of yours if I may be so presumptive). Instead of frolicking children enjoying the pleasantries of a summer escape there were crazed locals amped up on what is assuredly a combination of Mountain Dew, Marlboro reds, and green hatch chiles running roughshod over the marshland in shoddily crafted and maintained 4x4s. In fact, we—much like Billy the Kid—almost met an untimely demise at the hands of a self-appointed local posse/militia. Although this time they were not armed with repeaters (although I do not know this for sure) but with the raw power and combined might of 4 35 inch all-terrain tires. I am once again NOT KIDDING. It seems that if we had stayed where we were there would have been simultaneously two new hood ornaments in town and two obituaries haphazardly penned by the disgruntled and drunken local press corps.

If you are reading this in the winter months then likely the prognosis of your stay is positive but BEWARE this place in the summer. You were warned.

JG

Nice location, not too far but just far enough off the interstate. Good campsite options, pond you can fish in, picnic tables, atv trails you can walk. Not busy. Only problem is the bugs are HORRIBLE after sundown. Sleeping under the stars, NOT an option. It’s an ideal stop if you‘ll be sleeping in an RV. A tent might be alright too if you’re good at keeping bugs out. Toilets are currently closed. I had good cell service. Someone drove by in a crazy loud truck at 11

We stayed here 10/20-10/25/2020 and had a nice experience. There are garbage cans and 2 outhouses but no water or power. This are second year in a row staying here. There are no fire rings so please do not burn like some idiot tenters did last night, they broke branches off of some trees and made a fire in the road along the lake. I cleaned it up along with their trash! Please be respectful!! It’s free after all.

Public park as described by others. No signs prohibiting camping or limiting hours. We camped at a site next to the pond, there were two others camped nearby but plenty of space. Could be nice for multiple days. Might be busy/noisy on weekends but was quiet and peaceful during our stay.

Public park as described by others. No signs prohibiting camping or limiting hours. We camped at a site next to the pond, there were two others camped nearby but plenty of space. Could be nice for multiple days. Might be busy/noisy on weekends but was quiet and peaceful during our stay.

Really nice spot, calm and quite. No enforcement as far as i can tell so if the spots are taken, lots of open area that you could probably park on for a night. Nice little secluded river down the back path.

On our way to Las Vegas and this is the perfect spot to camp if you’re on a budget and don’t need any power/water/sewer hookups. All boondocking out here. We don’t have our generator with us but I’m sure we could have used it if we had. A lot of dogs barking at night but otherwise it was a great place for a pit stop.

Clean
Easy to get too
Very few bugs and mosquitos for August.
Only noise was folks fishing at night
Great walk around lake.

Beautiful scenery there's about 10 campsites around the lake. The lake has about 20 ducklings at the time I was there. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon a local gentleman struch up a conversation about how big the catfish were in the lake after a few minutes he left and I was the only campervan around had a few cars the drove by they were installing some lights on Friday which ended up be extremely bright that night and finally a few campers came in that evening. Had a few fishermen come in around 7 Saturday morning next to might site they wasn't a quite couple, but it's ok I was getting ready to leave anyway. I really enjoyed my stay there minus the rain and fisherman. The rain did subside long enough for me to walk around the lake (about a mile). would stay there again just maybe not on the weekend if you wanna sleep in past 6:30 or so.

Stayed during the week so only 2 other campers there. Most activity was ducks swimming by. Nice place to stay for a few days.