Pinon Cliffs Campground

We arrived around 7 pm. A friendly ranger greeted us. We paid $10 (no hookup needed) and has our choice of beautiful sites overlooking Bluewater Lake! Gorgeous. Serene. The road is paved and it’s very easy to find. Can’t see anyone else from our site. Amazing dark skies!

We stayed five nights at Bluewater Lake State Park and absolutely loved it. As others have mentioned, the park considers each loop (Northpoint, Lakeside, Upper Electric Loop, Canyonside, and Pinon Cliffs) as a different campground. We stayed in Pinon Cliffs Campground. All the sites were first come/first served prior to May 15th. There is one campground with electrical hookups, although we opted for a dry-camping site with a lovely view of the lake instead. We were here in early spring and strong winds kept us off the lake. There is a short trail system, about 2 miles total, which we enjoyed, especially the Canyonside Trail.

Sites are a very mixed bag in terms of size and level throughout the park. There a few with concrete pads, but almost all are gravel. There are some huge pull-though sites and lots of shorter back-in sites. In general, the sites at Canyonside and Lakeside seemed to be smaller. Upper Electric Loop and Pinon Cliffs had larger sites and the A, B, C sites were level with concrete pads. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. The park has restrooms, showers, potable water, a dump station, plus two boat ramps and a playground area. The day use area also has covered picnic areas. The lake is stocked with trout, catfish and tiger muskie.

We found Bluewater Lake to be ideally located for several day trips to El Morro and El Malpais National Monuments and the Bisti Badlands. The pups enjoyed the lake and trails too.

We had 2 bars of Verizon 4G.

I stayed at site 38 in the Pinon Campground two nights the weekend before the 4th of July. The grounds were very busy but there were ample walk-up lots available when I arrived. After exploring the grounds it did seem that the reserved spots were better than the walk-ups (duh) so if you are able to plan your stay in advance I would definitely recommend making a reservation. The lake was beautiful and it would be a great place for any kind of water sport. I hiked the two trails that spurred from the campgrounds. Hiking boots, steady feet, and an adventurous spirit are recommended for both. That being said I highly recommend both trails! The campground showers were ok and I had plenty of warm water. The vault toilets were clean enough but were hit-or-miss on whether they were stocked with TP. Before leaving I refilled my water tank and dumped my gray water. For $10/night I couldn't ask for much more! I would stay here again.

Stayed with a tent for 2 nights in site #40. It’s a reservation site but because the online booking system had it labeled as walk-up and there was no one in the office I treated it as a walk-up. Self-pay at the front. There’s one bathroom with running water that’s only open during the day. Otherwise pit toilets. The showers were closed, maybe due to the time of year. Also, horses roamed the campground freely during my stay and they were a joy to watch.