Juniper Campground (NM)

Great campground and great site

The new reservation system does not accommodate a day-use request. I wasn’t sure how to secure a site for pre-dawn arrival and departing in the afternoon at 3:00.

Juniper Campground is overall very nice & the service sink are much appreciated extra. Like a lot of NPS campgrounds, only one sink in the bathroom is a real choke point at peak usage times. A minor point is that it would be nice if closures for cleaning were at a set time which would be posted & not at peak useage times. LED lights in bathroom are way too bright, near blinding, & are certainly not compatible with protecting dark skies.

Juniper Campground is overall very nice & the service sink are much appreciated extra. Like a lot of NPS campgrounds, only one sink in the bathroom is a real choke point at peak usage times. A minor point is that it would be nice if closures for cleaning were at a set time which would be posted & not at peak useage times. LED lights in bathroom are way too bright, near blinding, & are certainly not compatible with protecting dark skies.

Recommend the Frey trail to the visitor center. great views and take the shuttle back up.

Recommend the Frey trail to the visitor center. great views and take the shuttle back up.

Once settled in, it was a great campground. However, reservations and getting a spot were difficult, with a lot of conflicting information from recreation.gov, the billboard on site, and how things actually work. For B loop, you must use recreation.gov -- no way around it after you get there, no way to adjust. Calling recreation.gov, they say "talk to the people on site." On site, the rangers say "talk to recreation.gov; we have nothing to do with it." The poster at the campground says to call a number for assistance -- the local visitor center. First, it's impossible with cell phone reception, so it's a hike or a shuttle ride to the visitor center (to get the above information). Ugh. Your best bet is to get a site on loop A when you first arrive, and pay at the box. Then go hike somewhere to get cell service to find a spot you really want after personally looking at loop C and B. Loop B, however, has few sites with level pads; most are at quite a tilt. Loop A has better pads. Shade is an issue in the summer -- hard to tell online which are shaded, but loop C has the best chance of shade.

Once settled in, it was a great campground. However, reservations and getting a spot were difficult, with a lot of conflicting information from recreation.gov, the billboard on site, and how things actually work. For B loop, you must use recreation.gov -- no way around it after you get there, no way to adjust. Calling recreation.gov, they say "talk to the people on site." On site, the rangers say "talk to recreation.gov; we have nothing to do with it." The poster at the campground says to call a number for assistance -- the local visitor center. First, it's impossible with cell phone reception, so it's a hike or a shuttle ride to the visitor center (to get the above information). Ugh. Your best bet is to get a site on loop A when you first arrive, and pay at the box. Then go hike somewhere to get cell service to find a spot you really want after personally looking at loop C and B. Loop B, however, has few sites with level pads; most are at quite a tilt. Loop A has better pads. Shade is an issue in the summer -- hard to tell online which are shaded, but loop C has the best chance of shade.

We booked two RV sites in loop C, the nature and view was amazing, near the campground we saw a big rattlesnake. The campground is very good and quite, the restrooms are very clean.

Pristene grounds; attentive, helpful, pleasant and professional staff. My take-out meal prepared in the Cafe was delicious! And I loved being able to walk it off along the Pueblo (something) Loop. Beautiful country.