Horse Thief Campground

This is the place to stay if you don’t want to drive your trailer over the 6 mile of washboard to Chaco or if the campsite is full. Run by a nice Navajo family. It is basically a bare dirt, fenced in lot with a few small buildings to shelter from the wind and a pit toilet. There is one picnic table and a small fire pit. Drive to end of pavement and turn left on a good dirt road for 200 feet. We left our trailer during the day and had no problems.

Easy to find by following the sign at the end of the paved road but it was a little tricky getting Apple Maps to recognize it as a destination.

This is just a dirt lot with a few buildings that are placed here but there is no power and no water and has a single pit toilet. The area is fenced in by barbed wire and has a few solar lights by the fence, gate, and payment box. There is no one else around for miles and we didn't see the property managers or owners the one day/night we stayed.

We pulled in around 7pm with a little bit of daylight left with no one else there. We camped overnight, using the generator for a few hours, then left the trailer there in the morning when we went to Chaco Culture NHP for the day. I would recommend leaving your trailer while traveling to Chaco Culture NHP since the road gets really bad and rutted most of the way in.

There doesn't appear to be any power to the entire site but there are signs saying there is camera surveillance along with a few cameras located on one of the buildings, but I think they were just there as decoys. The other buildings there don't appear to be powered either as I couldn't find any electrical service entrances. Still, we felt safe enough to stay overnight and to leave the trailer for a few hours.

It's pricey for a 20+ foot trailer at $40, but $20 for under 20' is much more reasonable, but your options out here are limited at best, and the closest BLM land was too far to leave the trailer for a day trip into CCNHP.

I would likely stay/drop here again when I return to CCNHP, but it is a bit of a hassle so maybe I will just tent camp in the cooler months at the campground at CCNHP to save the trouble. Just understand what you are getting here and what you will pay.

T-Mobile worked at one bar but was fast when connected. Very dark skies here at night and we were able to see the Starlink satellite train/array pass overhead as well as the Milky Way. No light pollution here, but there are bugs. Cash only so come prepared.

Updating the initial review. Horsethief is still a dry camp, only amenity is a vault toilet. The thing is, we’ve wanted to visit Chaco Canyon for years, but we didn’t want to haul our trailer over the notorious roads into the Park and we weren’t keen on having to spend half a day driving from Farmington and back - if you can get a site. Horsethief solved the problem. It’s right at the end of the paved road, quiet, great view and dark skies, 20 minute drive into Chaco.
Wayne, the owner, is building out the campground to give folks an option when visiting Chaco. He has added several spaces to meet demand and now has about 20 sites from tent camping to pull thru sites that accommodate 30’ rigs easily. All are bare dirt which could be a problem after a heavy rain, Wayne wants to bring in some gravel so that may change. If you stay here he’ll come by to welcome you and you can find out what he’s up to.