November 2015 – Scooting across New Mexico, we left the display of aging missiles at White Sands Missile Range Park and made our way to a place on the map that looked too fun to miss — the City of Rocks. As we traveled, stunning sunrises and sunsets continued to punctuate the start and end of everyday.
A wonderful New Mexico sunset!
The City of Rocks is a huge collection of massive boulders clustered together in a vast open plain. For miles, all we had seen was wide vistas of nothing, barely a bush and not even a tree. Then we suddenly saw “the city” ahead.
The City of Rocks!
New Mexico has turned this “urban” landscape into a wonderful state park that is essentially a huge campground with hiking trails scattered through and around it.
New Mexico’s City of Rocks is a little camping paradise.
At the entrance to the park there is an area with electric and water RV hookups.
There are hookups if you want them.
The rest of the “city” is filled with charming campsites that snuggle up against the rocks.
You can be off on your own communing with the hoodoos!
What a neat campsite!
We were enchanted. What a fun place to camp!
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We hopped on our bikes and checked out the trail that encircles the whole area. This is a very pleasant trail for walking (it’s just a few miles long) or for biking.
There’s a short trail for hiking or biking.
We had fun taking our bikes around the campground loops.
A very fun place for a bike ride!
The trail also climbs a steep hill at one point, and we had a blast bombing down the road.
Barreling downhill towards the city.
Early one morning, we spotted a hawk that was surprisingly calm and didn’t seem to mind us too much.
A hawk keeps an eye on me but doesn’t get spooked.
Each campsite is unique, and they come in various sizes and shapes.
I just love a retro trailer. This one is actually almost brand new!
Some campsites are fairly level and some are very unlevel, but each one is charming.
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On the Pegasus North Loop you can get away from it all and be quite far away from the “hubub” of “the city.” However, if you want to stay more than one night on that loop, you have to reserve in advance.
On the Pegasus Loop you need to reserve ahead or just stay one night.
We loved this little spot, and highly recommend it to anyone planning a visit to New Mexico. For RV travelers that are headed east-west on I-10, the nice thing is it’s not too far from the freeway — just under 30 miles.
A beautiful pink-and-blue sky… I love those skies in the early evening in the western deserts!
The cost when we stayed at City of Rocks was $10/night for dry camping and $18/night for electric and water hookups. The cool thing about New Mexico is that you can purchase an annual State Parks camping permit (currently $225 for non-New Mexico residents and $180 for the lucky in-state crowd) that gives you huge discounts on overnight camping. If you have one of these nifty camping permits, the dry camping sites are free and the electric/water sites are $4/night. More info below…
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More info about City of Rocks:
- City of Rocks State Park – Official Website
- New Mexico State Park Camping Fees – Official Info
- RVers that have used the Annual NM State Park Camping Permit a lot: WatsonsWander and Roadtreking
- Where is City of Rocks State Park? – Google Maps
More great RV dry camping destinations:
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- Lost Dutchman State Park Campground – Arizona Gold in the Superstitions
- Sand Hollow State Park, Utah – An Oasis in the Desert!
- RV Camping with the Rock Art Petroglyphs in Gila Bend, AZ
- Boondocking at Big Bend National Park – Cheap & Scenic RV Camping
- Wupatki Nat’l Monument – Ancient Indian Ruins & Great Camping in AZ!
- Valley of Fire, NV – A Cauldron Cooled
- Zion NP, Kodachrome Basin & Snow Canyon, UT – Great Red Rocks!
- Goblin Valley, UT – Where the Ghosts Are
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Great info! Thanks bunches!
You’re welcome, Karen!
Beautiful photos! This has long been on our list, but despite many trips through New Mexico, we’ve not yet made it there. Next time! 🙂 It reminds me of the Alabama Hills along 395 in Lone Pine, where we stayed in October.
You’ll love it when you do get there, Laurel. And thanks for the tip about the Alabama Hills — just checked out your blog post about it. What a cool place!
It’s very cool! Definitely your kind of place. 🙂
Thanks for the great write up on COR. It is a cool place. We lived about 30 miles north of park before we went full time. This past October we visited friends and hiked to the top of Table Mountain that is now part of the park. A few years ago a local donated a large parcel of land to the NM Park Service to include in and expand the park. NM doesn’t have the funds to improve the new section. but it is open for hiking. Great views from the top of very flat Table Mtn. If you are a geocacher, there are at least two caches up there.
Thanks again for the post. It brought back fond memories of our first overnight in our first travel trailer in the park many years ago.
I’m glad this post brought back good memories for you, Monte, and lucky you to have lived so close to it. We rode our bikes up Table Top and enjoyed the spectacular view from up there. How fortunate for us all that this land was donated to the park!!