Juniper Campground (NM)

A review is not applicable since we were turned away at the entrance. We had reservations to tent camp two nights at Bandelier but were advised to make other plans due to bear activity in the campground. Two juvenile bears had broken into tents and vehicles the previous week. We took their advice and found rooms in Los Alamos instead. Rather disappointing and wish that we had been notified earlier so that we might have been able to secure a different campground.

Tent camping was banned due to a bear and there was no information sent out until the afternoon of

Beautiful location, clean and well laid out campground (Coyote Loop), and cool and quiet at night. Trails to the major sites of Bandelier located just off the back of our site. Plenty of good pine firewood for sale at the entrance.

This is a great campground, nestled in the trees. Restrooms were clean and well maintained. Wish I would have stayed another night. Bear boxes are provided for each site. Bandolier is such as fascinating place. On the short nature walk I saw so much, it was well worth it (woodpecker, other birds, lizards, cougar tracks, snake). If you go, drive the extra miles to do the Tewa Trail. Little paths cut into the Tufa rock. Most interesting hike I've been on in awhile.

The Park Rangers were very helpful!

Very nice campground with flush toilets, water spigots, flat spots for tents and not too far from White Rock and Los Alamos. If you come in the summer, try to find one of the few spots that have taller pine trees which can provide shade. Also, be bear aware! Lock all food items, including grills, in the bear boxes at each campsite. A neighboring camper did not put their grill away and a bear came through their campsite and broke one of their car windows.

It’s worth noting that the Abert Squirrel Loop is FCFS and has some sites appropriate for trailers. The other two loops require reservations. The Black Bear loop has very few level pads and most pads are very short. The Coyote Loop has more shade, bigger pads and mostly level pads. There are clean flush toilets and no showers.

The campground is a drive or long steep hike away from the Visitor Center. There were no camp hosts and cell service was sketchy at my site. I was disappointed with how close my site was to neighbors on both sides (Coyote Loop #49) and ended up leaving a day early.

The only thing negative as most sites said “shade” and that is. VERY misleading. All sites had about 85 percent shade and the sun was brutal, we left two days early as ir was just impossible. We have stayed at 100s of national parks and seek shade and most of the time when it says shade it is accurate. You should modify and state partial shade and that is a push. Otherwise bathrooms were nice and clean.

Nice quiet campground with shaded level spots. The bathrooms were very clean with flush toilets and a separate dish washing room. That was very handy. Also, nice clean dump area with clean water fill which we were not expecting.