Heron Lake State Park

New Mexico State Parks are a great value at $10 dry, $14 with 30 amp electric. That price hasn't changed in the last six years. Knowing I was coming through the area on a weekend, I wanted a reservation in hand. Of course, ReserveAmerica took their excessive bite, but that's a whole different story. Turns out, the vast majority of the sites at the park are first come, first serve and a reservation wouldn't have been necessary.

The park has over 250 sites scattered through about seven campground loops scattered along Heron Reservoir. The Willow Creek loop is the closest to the park entrance. The water level has been very low for several years so the campgrounds are not as full as normal.

There are flush toilets at each of the major campground loops, and some of them have showers as well. There aren't many showers but there didn't seem to be much competition for them. Free, warm water as long as you keep pushing the button!

Sites are gravel, with steel fire pit and cast concrete tables. Site size varies, but the reservation description seems to be conservative. I was surprised to discover my site was a pull-through on the wrong side of the road when the map showed it as a back-in on the other side of the road. My combination was short enough that I could enter the put-through from the far end, getting my door (and solar) to face the right direction.

This was a great spot to hole up for the weekend. I'm hoping it pays off and there will be open dispersed sites near Los Alamos on Monday...

I sometimes had a couple bars of AT&T with very slow data near the park entrance. I was able to boost my Verizon MiFi to 3 bars of 4G with the antenna and amplifier, but couldn't connect to Verizon at all without the amplifier.

This is a great area in general with Chama up the road which has a great coin laundromat, hardware store + grocery, restaurants, gas station and a train which is a major tourist attraction for the town and the Lake below Heron (El Vado Lake State Park) there is something for everyone who is trying to get away for awhile. Campsites at Heron range from full hookups, electric+water and dry camping. The upper campground has flush toilets and the lower has vaults + flush, but during October it was vault only. Clean restrooms and camp sites + helpful staff. There were some early risers making general pulling out noise during my last stay but overall very quiet and pet friendly with miles of trails all over the lake. Mobile signal was spotty but without a booster a walk on one of the trails or to the dumpster was good enough to send txts, emails and upload a few pictures. From what I understand fishing is very good at Heron and other lakes with plenty of hunting opportunity near by.

We arrived at this campground in early Feb so there was absolutely no one around! We also had snow for a few hours of the day.
We chose site 17 in the Willow Creek campground that had views of the Lake below. (This is the only available campground with hookups available out of season). It had electric/water hookups with a separate dump station at the entrance of the grounds.
Other campsites that provided just water were located overlooking the lake but was super windy.
Terrain was quite muddy or it had very loose soft dirt which sank under weight.
They are currently working on the water pipes, so we didn't have water until nightfall.

I should start by saying that I’m an absolute animal lover. I pet and love on animals of all shapes and sizes.

But barking for hours on end...it’s enough to make a person go crazy. We haven’t had this problem anywhere else (at least not yet) but right now, out of the four campsites around us, all four have barking dogs in them. Not my idea of fun.

That’s aside, this is a fairly nice campground. I’m docking a star off my rating not because of the barking dogs (totally not the fault of Heron Lake Campground) but because everything is closed up or is being closed up. It’s not announced on the NM State Parks website, either. According to it, everything is open and running. But the bathrooms with the hot showers have been closed for the season (despite it still being September), leaving only vault toilets open according to the signage, although I have yet to spot said toilets. (ETA: I found one vault toilet last night in the Blanco Campground and it was all locked up...?? So I'm not sure where these open vault toilets are to be found).

Anyway, I had wanted to take a nice hot shower while here without filling my gray tank, so having the regular bathrooms shut down was an unwelcome surprise.

Also, there are two campgrounds up here, and Blanco is closing in just a couple of days, leaving only Willow open. Again, no signage coming into the Heron Lake campground – just what we learned while checking in. (ETA: We did find a sign last night going into the Blanco campground, but you had to actually be pulling into that particular campground itself before you saw it. It isn't on the main sign coming into Heron Lake, nor is it on the state website).

Negatives aside, this is a WONDERFUL campground. The sites are generous-sized, especially after Pine Campgrounds over at Navajo Lake, where the sites were really squishy. The sites here are also extraordinarily level – this is the first time setting up our trailer that we didn’t have to use any leveling blocks at all. We are staying in the Willow campground but we walked through Blanco campground last night and found it to be just as lovely. If I were in a large rig (Class A or something) I think Blanco would be better suited; the road around the loop is a little wider than it is in Willow. Otherwise, both campgrounds are truly nice.

The lake is horribly low – if you look at the pics I posted, you’ll see that the drought here has been horrendous. This has really affected the fishing, which is part of the reason why we’re here. :(

The internet has been...interesting. Sprint is an absolute no-go – even with the booster, we got zero bars.

Verizon has been great, if weirdly spotty. This morning, holding my phone perfectly still, it went from extended 1x to 3G to LTE to 3G again. I literally didn’t move it an inch. There have been the occasional hiccups where it wouldn’t work at all, but it’s mostly been great. I just ignore what signal strength my phone says it has and just use it, lol.

AT&T has also been great – two to three bars with 4G-LTE data, without the booster. I was worried about being able to work while here; turns out, I had no reason to worry. Just to put other’s minds at ease. :)

Chama, a nearby town, is a lot of fun to explore. We went into Fina’s Diner and had the most amazing breakfast EVER. We went grocery shopping at Lowe’s and the prices weren’t as terrible as I was expecting. :-p We went to the train area and explored around. It’s neat what they’ve done there. It's definitely worth a trip into town to explore a little.

As for fishing, my husband says that there appears to be long-term neglect happening. Places were closed and had been for a long time; places were also closed for the season. We didn’t expect everything to shut down so early. :( The long-term neglect is most worrisome, though. If a day-use area has been shut down for years for "maintenance," that tells me that the parks are underfunded. As someone who pays for the NM State Parks pass for $225 a year, I know that I'd be willing to pay more if doing so meant that they could do some repairs to the parks.

Anyway, the night temps have been getting low; we had to run our heater last night to stay warm because it's getting down into the 40s. But daytime temps have been great (70s) and the weather has been pretty darn perfect overall. It has been a little windy at times, but nothing too terrible.

There is a *very* short nature trail here in Willow Campground; at a leisurely pace and stopping to take pictures, I still completed it in ten minutes. So it’s good for young children; pretty flat and lots of views. It's not wheelchair accessible only because it's too narrow; otherwise, a wheelchair would have no problem with it. There's a little brochure that they've put together that goes along with the trail. (See my pics for more info).

Overall, don’t expect the state website to give you accurate info about the closures in this park; any time after mid-September, I’d expect things to be shut down, and plan accordingly.

We’ll definitely be back. Hopefully there will be more water in the lake and less barking dogs that time. :-p

We based our northern NM visit at this campground. Great variety of campsites, some directly on Lake Heron. Carefully study this area as there are two State Parks and numerous campgrounds. Plenty of fishing in the lake and on the river. We did not have a good hiking map with us, and headquarters did not have TOPO maps. So, buy one beforehand. There is a lot of hiking we missed out on, because we don't hike without a map. We went in the June, weather was beautiful. Check lake levels if you are interested in fishing. You can also swim, but in June we found it chilly! The wildlife was incredible.
Campgrounds were not full midweek and were quiet, bathrooms were clean. The CHARMING town of Chama was about 30 minutes away. We went for the Historic Toltec Chama railroad trip. Don't miss this, too much fun and a wide price range.
In Chama we found a FLUFF & FOLD. A laundry where you can drop off your dirty stuff and pick it up later.. Perfect for the middle of a two week trip. We stripped linens and dropped it all off and went on our train ride. We picked up the laundry on our way back!
Restaurants, shops, etc were in this small tourist town. The River runs through it and we stopped at one hotel to ask directions and they told us to go out back and fish!

We got a full site for 10 days and with nm park pass only $8 a night. All gravel sites and roads thru campground, with sites of all shapes, sizes and various hook ups. We liked this park for the wildlife viewing....deer, elk, and several birds to watch. The park rangers were knowledgable and very friendly. However, the lake level is low and there are restrictions on boating, so check on those before coming with your boat.
Restroom looked clean and well maintained, but we didn't use them much with fhu at site. There is a dump station as well. Camp hosts arrived 3 days before we left, they seemed very nice and eager to start their new assignment.

I honestly don’t get it. Stayed at the Willow Creek loop. Dirt road throughout this loop and if you sneeze it kicks up a lot of dust. Dirty, dry, dusty, unpleasant campground. I purchased the non resident New Mexico state park pass and have to say I regret it. I’ve been to Eagle Nest (open field on a lake and very windy), Hyde Memorial (terrible place), Cimarron (Maverick loop right on the road and very small) and now this dump. Seems to me that the state wants to take your money but won’t use it to make improvements to their parks. When I say I don’t get it I mean that I’ve read really good reviews on these parks and have to wonder if they’re talking about the same places. If I could get a refund on my annual pass I’d do it in a heart beat.

Just stayed at Blanco CG for 4 nights starting on Oct 3rd. Large, private sites with lots of bushy junipers and a scattering of ponderosa pines. Very quiet! Lots of stars!

We had electric and water hookups(contrary to website info). Shower house/flush toilets shut due to insufficient water supply. Host said we could use showers at El Vado Lake(which is drained). Didn’t try that since it was 15 or more miles away. Plus the water issue was unclear to me as far as water being dispensed from 4 to 6PM. Lake level low, visitor center only open on weekends (maybe Friday also). Stairway to Chama River from TH closed, only access to river via steep lower dam service road.

Suggest bringing everything you need as there ain’t much in the way of civilization around. Small hamlets, 2 gas stations around Tierra Amarilla. Family Dollar and a hardware store also in the same area.

Great location if you’re looking to ride the Cumbres and Toltec train, as we did. Amazing Fall colors along the highway and especially along the train route!

Finding a site with electric is a challenge prior to Labor day. The website is not updated properly, hosts on site have more of a handle on what is open and what is reserved. Plan on spending one night in a primitive site and check in with hosts to find an electric site. Weather right now is perfect without electric for a/c. My Class A is well insulated with reflectix in windows for year round travel from desert to snow, so maintaining 74F right now is not hard with day temps 75, nite 48-52. "Dust"...? It's New Mexico!, not New York City, fer pete's sake! If people would follow the 5 mph speed limit there wouldn't be so much polvadera, but such is life. The lake is still low, as I remember it 10 years ago, but lots of rain and snow in the past year has greened everything up from the usual dried brown I remember. There is a roadside fruit and veggie stand between T.A. and Chama...a little expensive, but the price was worth it for the freshness of the corn, tomatoes (vine ripe, tasty!!) and potatoes. Lots of other local stuff, too-honey, dried beans from Co. (Anasazi in 5 & 20 lb sacks). The only downer (for me) is Verizon could not reprogram my phone to prevent 'roaming'. Had to buy local carrier PIN# to make calls, in a long convoluted process. Incoming Verizon calls going to voicemail, which I have to PAY for to check. Verizon Jetpack is working just fine...so far.

We camped with our camper and loved it here. Our site was a pull through and had just the right amount of privacy. Pretty little trails around with lots of deer. Beautiful sunsets! Had no problem with dust—prob because it has previously rained. One bar of Verizon but enough to stream.