Holy Ghost
Holy Ghost is a campground on the edge of the Pecos Wilderness, in a
Ponderosa-Fir forest, right at the edge of the altitude where Aspen
begin. The campground is on the edge of a stream and has a trailhead
into the Pecos Wilderness. Of the many campgrounds in this area,
only Jack's Creek might be nicer.
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Campground data:
| Controlling agency: | Santa Fe National Forest; Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District; campground web site |
| Location in the state: | North-central; Sangre de Cristo Mountains |
| Waypoint(s): | HGCG |
| Elevation: | 7975ft; 2431m |
| Number of campsites: | 24. 4 double tent sites, 14 single tent sites. |
| When we visited it: | 2005-08-27. 2001-09-22 |
| Cleanliness: | 6/10. In the campsite we stayed in, someone had tried (unsuccessfully) to burn their beer cans in the fire pit. They had then been pulled out and left on the ground nearby. |
| Fee: | $8.00. The fee is per vehicle, not per campsite as it is at many other forest service campgrounds. |
| Water: | Yes. |
| Garbage cans: | Yes. |
| Fire pits: | Yes. All campsites appear to have fire pits with cooking grates. |
| Cooking grills: | Yes. At least one campsite has both a BBQ and a fire pit. Most only had the fire pits. |
| Toilets: | Vault. |
| Showers: | No. |
| Handicapped accessible: | Yes. At least three sites are marked as handicapped accessible, and the one restroom nearby is also marked as accessible. |
| RV info: | No electrical hookups. No water hookups. No sewer hookups. |
| When to camp: | Apr--Nov. |
| General comments: |
Dogs are allowed on leash.
Horse trailers are not allowed. No horses are allowed in the campground.
This campground also has a group site.
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Maps:
Getting to the campground:
From the town of Pecos, NM, take New Mexico 63 north. This road
is narrow and it has many sharp turns. After about 13 miles, you
will see a sign indicating Holy Ghost is to the left. Take this
even more winding, one-lane road (Forest road 122) about 2.2 miles
to the campground, which is at the end of the road.
If you get to the Terrero General Store, you have just passed the
turnoff. The store is notable because it offers showers for
$5.00.
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The campground:
 | This campground has some wonderful views, one of which is to the left.
This view is looking northeast from the parking area for the tent
portion of the campground.
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To the right is another of the tent camping sites. You park
and then walk up to the picnic table and tent area. The sites at the
front of the campground are different from the one pictured here; in
them, you park near your picnic table.
This campground has many varieties of wildflowers; you can see some in
this photo.
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 | To the left, you can see a picture of Holy Ghost Creek that runs
beside the campground. About half of the campsites have direct
access to this creek.
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This campground has its share of campground wildlife. This was one of
several squirrels running around the campground. We also saw several
species of birds.
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Plants we saw in the campground:
Animals we saw in the campground:
- Rabbit
- Raven
- Squirrel
- Stellar jay
Reader comments about this campground:
On Mon Jul 14 17:33:06 2003 Dave from Austin, TX said:
Came upon Holy Ghost for the first time by a stroke of good fortune
when I was seventeen. Since then I have returned many times sharing
this wonderful campground with friends and family. Lots of beautiful
hiking in the mountains and along icy cold crystal streams. Beautiful
nights with the sound of the wind rushing through the aspen spruce
and pine.
On Mon Jul 28 09:09:06 2003 Paul Mitchell from currently Fredericksburg, VA said:
Holy Ghost Campground was our favorite family destination when
living in Whiterock, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque 1972-1991. Our old
bright orange VW Camper graced just about every one of the camp
spots over the years.
Fate has moved us to Virginia but daughter and family still in New
Mexico and our small grandkids are today cavorting at Holy Ghost
just like their mom did at their age 30 years earlier. It does not
get much better than this.
Just like the real holy ghost, this place and memories are etched
forever on my soul, and, God willing, that of generations to come.
Clearly in the top few enchanted spots in the land of enchantment.
On Sat Aug 16 02:15:43 2003 Darren from San Antonio, TX said:
My wife and I camped there in July of 1997. Nice campground! The
ground is soft with grass so it made sleeping in our tent very
comfortable. I would definitely recommend this campground to anyone.
On Wed Jul 6 22:15:15 2005 Todd Kristy from Albuquerque, NM said:
We camped at the group site 6/17/2005--6/19/2005 as part of a
larger group. The stream produces a wonderful background to outdoor
camping and the hand-pumped water was much appreciated. This is a
very nice campground. We were a little unprepared for how cold the
site was at night. I'm guessing the daytime temperatures were
around 85, but the nighttime temperatures left frost on our car.
I think the campsite is situated in a canyon that extends much
higher into the mountains and funnels cold air down to lower
elevations at night. The campground is also very close to the
Terrero general store which is nice for those little things you
forget.
On Tue Mar 14 15:56:11 2006 Joel from Rio Rancho, NM said:
We used to camp here every year, beautiful area and nice campground overall. The Camp host has been MIA for who knows how long, and the last 2 times we were their we were up all night listening to annoyingly loud music and drunks with no escape. Last time we left early. Road to get their is narrow, hard to get Trailer in there. Rangers show up to grab your money and leave, no real service that we noticed other than that.
On Sun Jun 18 21:34:31 2006 Matt from Albuquerque, NM said:
We just got back from Fathers Day weekend. The camp ground was
great. I stayed here last August and its even better now than when
I stayed then. Probably due to the really cool camp host.
The site was spotless, so beautiful you cant help but pack out
others litter in the rare case you see it.
Really popular site packed in this weekend but, it stayed very
mellow and peaceful. Check it out. Even in Summer it gets cold
at night, be prepared.
On Mon May 21 11:55:13 2007 Steve from Amarillo, Texas said:
Holy Ghost is our favorite camping spot. The hiking trails are great and the scenery beautiful. We hiked up to Stewart lake in May 2007 and it was stunningly beautiful.
We go at least twice a year and have only seen a camp host once in May 2006.
Our last trip (May 2007) was great except for several inconsiderate people who played loud music all day and well into the night. They also shined their flashlights in other campsites during the wee hours of the morning. It's too bad there isn't a camp host or ranger who can "police" the area from time to time--at least on busy weekends.
We have gone during the week and it's much more peaceful. Since we are tent campers we tend to camp towards the back where there are fewer RVs and less noise.
There are lots of squirrels and birds to watch and we've seen skunks during the night. As with any camping it's imperative that you don't leave food out at ANY time.
The campground is kept clean as are the bathrooms.
On Tue Jul 24 12:51:31 2007 weekenders from Albuquerque new mexico said:
We stayed at holy ghost campground and I did check out the web site before we went. It didn't say any thing about the narrow winding pot hole speed bump one lane road. It doesn't say any thing about the rusty and yellow water and it doesn't say any thing about the dirty nasty bathrooms and the trash cans that are too small and not enough of them and the really rude ranger. But even after all that we had the most wonderful time at the camp ground tell you why despite all that we took our sweet time on the narrow winding road going up it was on a wednesday and we had are own water and we had are own bathroom and thank god for the 30min of rain we filled up buckets that we had so we could finish are last days of the trip and we only had one bag of trash and we did comply with the 30min genarator rules that the ranger so rudely told us about. Itis a wonderful place to camp if you look only at the mountains and the river and the sky alot of the campers were very nice and even though they had dogs every one got along very well just a little work on the campground would be nice. Thank You
We had a wonderful time we will go back in another time. Charlie and Lucy
On Mon Jul 30 09:09:28 2007 Anonymous from Somewhere said:
This Friday went up and the campground was full at 5:30 p.m. It resembled a KOA rather than anything else, without the amenities. We were probably lucky it was full, because it did not look like much of a nature experience, just a bunch of people from Oklahoma and Texas sitting around drinking beer on lounge chairs, while their bored kids looked for something to do.
On Sat Aug 18 09:40:17 2007 Anonymous from Somewhere said:
Holy Ghost Canyon holds many great memories for me as we used to go camping there when I was very young. I didn`t know if it was still open or not, it was closed for a period of time.We will visit again from nearby Texas.
On Thu Sep 6 20:56:09 2007 ankseg from Albuquerque, NM said:
We went up on a Saturday afternoon on Aug 25, 2007. We took a
35' motorhome and gotta say it was OK taking up that winding
narrow tree-lined road, BUT got a few adrenalin rushes when cars
were coming the other way and they had to SQUEEEZe to the side of
the road so i could get by, the worst was when they were right
against a rock wall and the road was sorta crumbling on my side
where there was a steep drop down a hillside, yikes - made it thru
though. When we got there we got the very last campsite available,
phew. Since this is a narrow valley the road is straight with
campsites flanking both sides, a bit like row houses and we had a
view of several neighbors. Everyone was real nice and no loud
partiers that we could hear. It was very pretty surroundings and
nice to take walks to the little river - I found some wild
raspberries, nice. In the morning everyone started up their campfires
and breakfast at pretty much the same time and the narrow valley
was wall-to-wall smoke - I got pretty smoke sick and nauseous from
it...but it cleared up not too long after. It wasn't exactly
as secluded feeling as I would have liked, but it was pretty. All
the sites seemed to have picnic tables and firepits with grills.
The ranger only drove by once but didn't stop to bug us or
anything. I don't think I'd go back unless maybe it was
mid-week when there might be less people. But I'd probably
rather check out a new campground as nothing really compelled me
to return to this one... By the way thanks for this awesome website!!!
On Fri Jun 27 19:38:06 2008 Anonymous from Somewhere said:
I camped in Holy Ghost Canyon in l969 with a group of youth from Hunt Memorial Methodist Church in Dumas, Texas. What wonderful memories !!!! I was one of the youth leaders. I am now 71 years old. The Holy Ghost Creek brought laughter to me as I remember one of the other leaders falling into it as she was trying to get water in our coffee pot. Ha !!! What wonderful memories. So glad to ready your web site. Glad you all are still in operation and I pray others are still being BLESSED !!!
On Sun Jul 13 07:52:39 2008 George from Santa Fe NM said:
We always loved Holy Ghost and Jack's Creek with equal measures- the great views, the cool nights, and of course, the great fishing. We tend to stay at Jack's creek now, ever since that "incident" in 2005. A small church group had taken two campsites near the second bridge, and in the middle of the night, a group of bikers showed up, tore up their tents pretty good, and made off with three 18 year old girls and one 19 year old guy. We don't mind it too much, since the bodies were actually found over in Las Vegas, NM, and the heads closer to Wagon Mound- they don';t think that the murders happened at Holy Ghost, but think they were probably decpaitated in Pecos, than the bodies were dumped down the road. That isn't the issue anyway; the wailing and screams at night are un-earthly- it's been said that the white glows look like walking people without heads, usually coming down the mountain... good luck if you go!
On Tue Jul 15 13:53:37 2008 The Webmaster from Albuquerque, NM said:
George, that's a great ghost story for telling around the campfire!
On Thu Jul 17 10:09:31 2008 Anonymous from Somewhere said:
My only visit to Holy Ghost Canyon was 1960 or so when I was a young teenager living in Fort Worth, Texas. Our family always took camping vacations with six or eight other families and this one was one of the biggest; had about 15 kids in the bunch. As I recall we were at the end of the campsites and we virtually took the place over as we stayed for over a week. We set up horse shoes, volleyball court and more. One of the group was a minister and we had a church service; put up signs and some other campers joined in. One of the most memorable events of the trip was the surprise hail storm that covered the ground so deep that our pictures made it look like snow. In another post I was reminded of the narrow and winding road. I remember my dad commenting on how we had no choice but to keep going because turning around was certainly no option. Glad I ran across this site; it has brought back many great memories.
On Mon Jul 28 15:20:05 2008 John Robins from Austin NM said:
I remember the church slaughter too! 2005 and it was a bloody mess- pieces of those poor kids were found from Pecos all the way up to Wagon Mound- heads were just tossed along the road. We took a Wigi board there last fall, and some really creepy stuff took place- someone needs to bless the place- or something. I've heard of blood flowing from the pumps, then all of a sudden it's clear- my Brother was fishing and saw a face in the water looking over his shoulder- a teenage girl, and he turned too see no one behind him.. I've never heard the reported "screams", but wouldn't doubt it, given the violent deaths those poor kids suffered. I've heard it's all good up there till Labor Day weekend, when the Vaditos tend to drop in for some drinking and party'ing.....
On Sun Aug 24 18:01:11 2008 Anonymous from Albuquerque NM said:
We had a lovely weekend at Holy Ghost 8/20-8/22/08 The campground was clean and tidy, and not too crowded, and all the campers well-behaved, with the exception of some RVers who insisted on running their generator late into the night, despite posted signs about run restrictions. We had no trouble finding a space for our tent on Friday. The campground was pretty much empty by Sunday afternoon. There was a heavy rainstorm Saturday, and it was quite cool at night and early in the morning.
The upper men's bathroom was quite smelly,however. (remind me not to camp down wind from a bathroom again).
We picked up a small amount of trash left at our campsite. We are looking forward to coming back again soon.
I do wish people would not leave trash in the cooksites. We also retrieved some trash from the stream and from the hiking trail. I will never understand why people are so lazy that they cannot throw trash away and are so willing to mess with the beauty of the area.
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