Oasis State Park Campground

I stayed here one night on the return trip from Taos to north Texas, because it was about half way through the 10 hour drive. I didn't come through Portales, which is the nearest town, and am glad I was provisioned up because I didn't see a grocery store or gas station nearby. I arrived after dark which is always a little spooky. The signage at night is not very clear but I paid at the box and found a spot. I was happily surprised with the facility, very level spot, easy to hook up, and excellent bath house. I found out in the morning that the facilities have been recently upgraded. The shower house and bathrooms are energy efficient (solar), warm, very clean and handicap accessible. Each site has a nice covered picnic table and some of them have little walls, to defend you from the wind I suppose. There are several handicap accessible sites, and all are very level. Being winter and quite cold (30's) there were few campers, so it was nice and quiet. I woke up early and took a walk around some of the dunes, which are low sand hills with vegetation such as sage, grasses and yucca. I saw quail and rabbits, and was joined in my walk by a really sweet loose dog. He was a good companion and fun to watch. Once I got back to camp he wandered off. What a life!

A nearby town has the gravesite and a museum for Billy the Kid, which I would enjoy if I were to return. There is a stocked pond/lake at the park for fishing year round if you want. Altogether a nice park.

Stayed on April 25, 2017
Pros: Clean and tidy; Spacious; Level dirt sites; Some shade trees; Paved roads in; Quiet; Very clean restrooms and great showers; Friendly camp hosts; Easy ingress and egress; Easy to find from the Highway; Covered picnic tables; Grill; Power and water; Hiking trails; Dump station

Cons: Water undrinkable due to high nitrates; Far from town grocery stores; No WiFi
Note: Surrounded by feed lots. We did not encounter any stench, but assumed the nitrate problem was due to them being so close.

We stayed here as an overnight stop on our way back from Utah. We had reservations, but the site they assigned us had no trees, therefore no shade. In talking to someone that had been there for a while they suggested we just pick another site, which we did (there was no sign of the camp host). Site 20 was a pull through with shade and fairly level. There were warnings to not drink the water as it had high levels of nitrates.

There are several feedlots nearby and when the wind shifted we were forced inside to avoid the stench. There was also an abundance of flies at this park.

Pros: It was quiet. Clean bathrooms.

Cons: Feedlot smell. Cell phone coverage is minimal. The dump station was closed down and looked as if it had been for a while. Water not safe to drink. Lots of flies.

With an average 3-star rating right now, we were a little cautious about this park, but now that we’re here, we’re thrilled.

A) It’s out in the wilds so there’s no street lamps or semis roaring past (we’ve been in congested areas for a long time now, so being somewhere peaceful is so lovely!)
B) But at the same time, it’s between Portales and Clovis, and both are just a quick drive away (perhaps 15 minutes or so), making groceries, gas, propane, restaurants, etc, all in easy reach.
C) The bathrooms here are AMAZEBALLS! We try not to use the bathroom in our rig whenever possible to save on tank space, so the local restrooms are a big deal to us. They recently renovated these bathrooms (or built from scratch - I’m not sure) and they are simply lovely. Best New Mexico State Parks bathroom that we’ve been in so far, bar none. (And we have the state pass, so we’ve been in a lot of NM state park bathrooms!) Hot showers and flush toilets even during the wintertime; very nicely done. The bathrooms use solar heat to heat up the water for the showers, so if you want to take a nice hot shower, take one in the afternoon when the water has had plenty of time to warm up. :)
D) It’s true that there’s nitrates in the water still; we read the reviews here on Campendium before leaving our last area, so we traveled with a full fresh water tank and arrived prepared. Because there are showers here, we’ll be able to last a long while on the water we brought with us, and when we need more, there’s a water dispenser at the Walmart in Portales.
E) It’s a slower connection, but we have two bars of Verizon and LTE data, without our booster. So the person who reviewed it and said that there was no Verizon signal - that’s changed now.
F) We’re in a really lovely level pull-through site with a shade tree, a trash can at our site (each site has its own!), and electricity (so with our parks pass, we’re only paying $4 / night).
G) We saw cows as we drove here, but there aren’t any especially close by, and we absolutely cannot smell them. We’re from Idaho and I’ve smelled MANY a cow lot in my life, and I promise you, that smell is not here. At least not right now, it isn’t. So don’t worry about that!
H) My husband will be checking out the lake and fishing tomorrow; I’ll update my review after that. :) UPDATE: The "lake" is really just a pond. It is manmade, with an eye towards making it easy to fish in. There is absolutely no swimming or boating allowed in it; it is only for fishing. It is well-loved – lots of people are using it every day, even during bad weather.

Definitely a nice place to stay and get work done, and enjoy the peace and quiet. We’ll be back!

Camped 10/3/2018 Wonderful park, with Quail running around. Small la walk around. Only stayed one night but may stay two next time to rest as we travel back the Michigan. Nice shade covers that offer privacy. Rest rooms are very clean.

We stayed for 11 days and have the NM parks annual pass. Sites are level with great patio shelters. Bathrooms as mentioned are great, clean and new. Wind blows just about everyday so the shelters at each spot make a nice wind break. We will stay here again.

We loved this park, such a great layout with lots of space between the sites, pull through for a one night if needed but we stayed 3 because it was just so nice. Trails, beautiful skies, and the sunsets were spectacular! We will so stay here again when coming this way! We used a Weboost and had 4 bars and LTE with great internet. We stayed in a 27ft Airstream TT

We arrived for one night on a Monday in March and every hookup site was taken. Bummer because some of the electric sites had amazing views and cute little cabana type enclosures, I would have gladly paid the extra. We took a tent site (non electric) for $10 and it was great. Site was level, had some privacy and a picnic table. For how crowded the other loops were, we were the only ones at the tent site loop. It was really quiet, far enough from the road. There was one vault toilet a short walk away which was very clean. Took a walk the following morning to the cute little lake where a few people were fishing. If we’d had the time I would have stayed longer.

Sites were big and roomy lots of space between your neighbor. Bathrooms were clean and nice. I have Verizon and only got one bar so I wasn’t able to stream very well but other than that it was a great stay.

We were here 5/31/19 for 3 nights. The weather was good, but we needed to run the AC, so moved from a dry spot to one with electric.The cost was $10 w/o electric. My husband caught an infection and we needed the urgent care facility in Portales (which BTW was terrific if you have to be sick!) So we just needed to be inactive for a couple of days while he mended.Even tho' this spot with the AC cost more than we usually pay - and as a state facility, no discount for us, it was well worth it.

We were able to sit and watch some local families camp with their kids and enjoy the thunderstorms rolling in. Did I say "enjoy"? Actually it can be an experience especially when with locals who understand when there might be danger, and when it's just weather.Life is an adventure.

Clean, quiet, worth the extra for what we were needing.