Gallo Campground

As stated by another reviewer, this place is tricky to access. The ride into Chaco Canyon from the south includes a rutted, sometimes impassable 22 miles dirt road. Write down your directions, as my GPS had issues locating the turn off. Be aware that the road may be inaccessible with excessive rain/snow. However, the campground is fine, with flush toilets and running water in the restrooms. Yes, it's primitive (no hookups). If you're trying to grab a site without a reservation, be there bright and early. Speak with the campground host, who can point you to the sites which will be available.

If you're driving in from the south, stock on on food in Gallup (or another larger town) and fill up with gas at Crownpoint, NM. There's nothing after Crownpoint.

There's plenty to do in the canyon - see the numerous kivas and hike the trails. Get up early for sunrise and star gaze at night. View petroglyphs, pictographs, and elk. Enjoy the solitude. The visitor's center has a great video, maybe 30 minutes long, which explains the history of this amazing place.

As others have mentioned, Chaco is great, but the campground has some "buts"...

The park itself will warn you away from coming to the park because of the roads. My experience (April 2017) was this: the southern access was a breeze. It hadn't rained in days, maybe weeks, and the dirt road was hard and rut-free. I exited to the north, the park's preferred route, and it was a deeply washboarded rumble fest. I thought I was going to drop my cabinets. Still, both were passable, though the north was much slower than the south.

Ok, now the campground. I arrived early on a Saturday morning of a holiday weekend. I was able to snag one of the last sites. Most are reservable, a few are walk ins. The ranger said people get really aggressive at these campsites because they've driven so far in and they do NOT want to drive out without camping. There is no other camping nearby. He said there were also instances where someone pretended to have a reservation and took a site, only to refuse to leave when the person who actually reserved the site arrived. I mean, come on people!

This is the only campground that I've ever seen, in decades of camping, that is run by law enforcement. A law enforcement ranger with a bulletproof vest and an arsenal of weapons took my $15. When I asked him if it was a dangerous place, he just said there were a lot of ruins to protect and it was remote. For what it's worth, all the old hippies in Volkswagen busses didn't look too dangerous to me.

The sites themselves aren't anything special. Small gravel parking areas with a picnic table and fire ring. Close together, not a lot of privacy. Bathrooms had running water and were relatively clean. There is zero cell coverage back there. Nada.

But, you guys, it's Chaco. The park is absolutely incredible. It's 100% worth the bumpy roads, the law enforcement collecting your $15, and the stress of getting a campsite. If you're going and will never leave the campground, don't go. Otherwise, go.

We drove here by the sunset, but this campground closed and locked up. There was no sign along the road says this campground closed, very inconvenient, visitor center closed also, but there is drinking water pump by the visitor center. There are 12-mile washboard road coming in from north, but paved roads round ruins, sites road open daily 7 am-5 pm. Campground looks nice from driveway.

This is a simple, somewhat cramped campground located in a gorgeous canyon next to the Chaco ruins. There’s no sun shelter or water source in the campground (the water is up at the visitors center). There is running water in the bathroom. Nice sandy tent pad.
We took the north route in and the roads weren’t nearly as bad as the Park Service website warned but we weren’t pulling a trailer or driving an RV. Heed the park service advice!!! Follow their directions and not your GPS or you will be in the middle of nowhere.
Campsites are by reservation only, no drive-up unless you’re really lucky.

If you have anything bigger than a pop up I would not come to camp. The last 10 miles of road are beyond bad. We took our time and everything in our airstream
Was trashed. The other thing we learned is do not put a travel trailer in a multi purpose sight. Tent campers are a different animals...not saying this in a bad way, however because they group the tents more or less around a centralized area,it becomes very busy and noisy. I would do this as a day trip only. The pit toilets were very clean. No cell or wifi.. if you are a tent camper location is great.

We were there 7/14-16. We heard that because of rains that the area was closed as of 7/28.

While reservations are required there are often some no shows. Julia the camp host was super helpful in finding a place for us for an extra night. The north road in to Chaco has just been graded making a much smoother drive in.

The campground is nice, but it’s not worth taking your camper on 16 miles of a washboard road. There were places on the road that was washed out too. We all felt like we had internal bleeding after the ride in and out!

We had been there before in 2005 and needed more time to see everything in Oct 2022. We booked online, $10 a night, booked site 19 - perfectly fine for our 8' Pickup Camper. Arrival was slow at 8-12 mph using the south entrance (NM-57/Rez-14) hard packed dry dirt road recently graded, but beware of any south-side mud conditions. Departure was also arduous 5-12 mph on the north side (NM-57) for serious washboard and also major culvert washouts. Neighboring camp said their brand-new Geo-Pro travel trailer-cabinetry was destroyed from the north road, likely they went over 12 MPH - so GO SLOW and be ultra-patient on this arduous stretch of nasty roadway!!! Once you get there, set up some sun shade - either camper awning or Easy-Up canopy, better do both. Even in October the sun was brutal hot and shade made all the difference. Some sites were denoted "RV Site" (read: "Without Tent Pad"). Site 19 provided both room for RV/camper and tent pad (for our overflow friends, despite what reservation rules seemed to read). In fact we had another truck camper stop by at evening without a reservation and we sure didn't want them to drive back upon a washboard road from hell in the dark. We discussed with the host and the host allowed the other PU camper to park in front of ours for the night, as long as we were OK with it (we even asked neighbors to be sure, and they were all very gracious too). So "Access" stunk for horrible roads (don't bring a new camper or trailer longer than 25'). "Location" was awesome, do more than 1 night, "Cleanliness" was super impressive, "Sites" were smaller and likely cramped for some, will depend on your needs vs what is actually available, very little noise, only one night did we have a generator run later than it should. Host will tell you to scramble to the top of the mesa to get ANY Cell Coverage. We had a WeBoost OTR cell repeater on top of our camper and we actually were able to make texts / unbroken calls over Verizon 4G, but otherwise NO SIGNAL without WeBoost OTR cell repeater!

The road is no fun. Dusty, washboard most of the way, dips and rough patches. Even the paved section at the start will have you bouncing. However, if you want time to explore or hike the trails, slow and steady will get you to the campground which is the best jumping off spot. There are even ruins next to the campground and 2 hikes from there. It's a most amazing place. Well worth a visit. While we were there, both hosts were off duty. One was new and not starting yet. No reserved date change on post from previous campers. Since it was right after Memorial Day, I was not totally surprised. People were quiet early. Minimal generator use. Some sites are RV specific, some for tents. Another section was closed due to rock fall into that section. Glad we had booked ahead of time. Place was full both evenings. paid $10 with our pass. Wind can whip up sand. Dump station had drinking water but flush not working. Used a bucket instead. Bathroom was clean. No cell coverage unless you hike to the top of a mesa.

I didn’t stay here because the reservation system showed no availability. However, at the Chaco Visitor Center it’s common for people to show up and either get a walk-in space (3 available) or get a cancellation (people tend to reserve more than they need) or be allowed to share the group site with other campers. The road is rough and ribbed in places, so it’s preferred not to come and go.