Dry camping near Carlsbad

[Danfreda1]

Stopped for a few nights on way to quartzite. Sunset reef campground 32.119290, -104.424605. Blm campground 5 pull through sites picnic tables with pavilion over them about 7 tent sites and a very clean pit toilet, and 8 trash cans that get emptied. Level sites hard packed rock with concrete around table. Fire pit and grill too. 5 night max stay and free. 

[sandsys]

1 hour ago, Danfreda1 said:

Stopped for a few nights on way to quartzite. Sunset reef campground 32.119290, -104.424605. Blm campground 5 pull through sites picnic tables with pavilion over them about 7 tent sites and a very clean pit toilet, and 8 trash cans that get emptied. Level sites hard packed rock with concrete around table. Fire pit and grill too. 5 night max stay and free. 

Sounds wonderful!!!

Linda

[rpsinc]

What state is this in?  I am close to Carslbad in California.

[sandsys]

46 minutes ago, rpsinc said:

What state is this in?  I am close to Carslbad in California.

New Mexico

[kb0zke]

I know this is an older thread, but someone may appreciate some additional information.

BLM has two camping areas near the Cavern. Sunset Reef, as mentioned above, and Chosa Campground are both south of the Cavern. Hackberry Lake Dunes Complex is NE of Carlsbad (the Cavern is SW) and is closer to The Ranch. That is more of an off-road vehicle area apparently, but there is boondocking available there.

If you don't already know about it, the BLM has an app that can help find interesting places to visit. It is called CarryMap.

[kb0zke]

Today we decided to spend some time exploring a bit, so we drove the truck out to all three sites. The main purpose was to see what BLM boondocking sites are like.

The first one we visited was Sunset Reef. The highway was fine, the paved road from the highway to the rock road to the campground was fine, too. At one point we got up to 10 mph on that rock road. We met a motor home that was leaving as we were pulling in. I pulled a bit off of the road so he could pass. If we had had the trailer attached I'm not sure that I would have moved over as far as I did, which would have made it tighter. As was mentioned above, the actual campground is nice. A nice tent area and covered picnic tables at the pull-thru RV sites. A vault toilet is present, as is a dumpster.

A few miles down the road is Chosa Campground. It, too, is very close to the main highway. There are several differences between Chosa Campground and Sunset Reef. The entrance to Chosa Campground is directly from the paved road, so no rocky road. There are no specifically designated RV campsites. There are some designated tent sites, though. There is also no vault toilet present. Thee was a dumpster, though.

Hackberry Lake Dunes Complex is WAY out in the boonies. Nothing but oil wells around. There are several covered picnic tables that more or less mark the campsites. I didn't drive through the whole area, as the sites are more spread out than at Sunset Reef, so I don't know if there is a dumpster or vault toilet there. The short road in is rather rough, but it is short, so even going at walking speed won't take too long.

Now, a question: are these three campgrounds typical of BLM areas? I'm thinking more about the rough road at Sunset Reef more than the covered picnic tables.