Mora

The Mora campground is a very popular campground in a Ponderosa-Fir forest along nearly a mile of the Rio Pecos. Some sites are nice, but overall this campground shows the signs of its popularity in damaged picnic tables, litter, graffiti, etc. I recommend that you consider Jack's Creek, Cowles, Terrero, or Holy Ghost instead.

Campground data:

Controlling agency:	New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
Location in the state:	North-central; Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Waypoint(s):	MORACG
Elevation:	7904ft; 2409m
Number of campsites:	No campsite count.. The number depends on the amount of creative parking you do and how close you are willing to be to your neighbor. Picnic tables are scattered around, but many people I saw camping were using their own tables.
When we visited it:	2001-09-22.
Cleanliness:	4/10. There was graffiti on the toilets.
Fee:	$0.00. This may explain some of the popularity and the condition.
Water:	No. The Rio Pecos and the Rio Mora join near the center of the campground. However, I saw no water which I would drink without treating first.
Garbage cans:	Yes.
Fire pits:	Yes. Some sites have grates for cooking, some are rings of stone.
Cooking grills:	No.
Toilets:	Vault. Smelly.
Showers:	No.
Handicapped accessible:	No.
RV info:	No electrical hookups. No water hookups. No sewer hookups.
When to camp:	Apr--Oct.

Maps:

Online from topozone.com
Online from terraserver-usa.com
Satellite image from terraserver-usa.com
USGS Topo Quad 1:24,000 Cowles
USGS Topo Quad 1:100,000 Santa Fe
USGS Topo Quad 1:250,000 Santa Fe
Santa Fe National Forest Map. My 1994 edition showed two other campgrounds in the area (Panchuela and Winsor Creek) which are day-use only sites.
Visitor's Guide to the Pecos Wilderness

Getting to the campground:

From the town of Pecos, NM, take New Mexico 63 north. Cross the river near a sign pointing to the Holy Ghost campground (do not take the road to the Holy Ghost campground). Near the Terrero General Store (which offers showers for $5.00), the road makes a sharp right turn, but there is really no other place to go. About two miles past the general store and about 1.5 miles past the Terrero mine the camping starts and runs for about 0.9mi.

Note that the road from Pecos is narrow and it has many sharp turns. Expect to take a good part of an hour to get from Pecos to the campground.

The campground:

	Where you actually see the sign for the campground, a rough dirt road runs up along the Rio Mora to some of the nicer sites. To the left is a picture of our truck in one of them.
The Rio Mora is quite picturesque here, as evidenced by the photo to the right. This part of the river is near the campsite pictured above.
	To the left, you can see an average site. This campsite is across NM 63 from the Rio Pecos.

Reader comments about this campground:

On Tue Aug 2 13:52:23 2005 David from Albuquerque, NM said:
I have camped at almost every site along the Pecos since 1971. Most trips have been pleasant except for the few people who seem to want to party and blare their boom boxes until late at night. Plan on arriving early for the premium sites as it does become crowded by late Fridays.

On Tue May 9 13:59:13 2006 Anonymous from abq.NM said:
I would pay $5 a nite if there was any kind of control of late nite partiers and upkeep of bathrooms and trash containers

On Thu May 25 17:06:27 2006 Jeff from Albuquerque said:
We spent two days at Mora Creek May 23 and 24, an area that I have spent a lot of time at since I was a small child. We spent 45 minutes picking up trash (beer cans and bottles, paper products, food containers. . .)when we arrived to make the site as picturesque as nature provided it. The toilet facilities have been used as trash bins and it doesn't appear that State Game and Fish is doing anything to improve this otherwise beautiful spot. The fishing was good (more trash in the creek), and the upper campground was very peaceful. Making this a fee area, I suppose, would go a long way toward keeping out the riff-raff and vandals. From the tagging on the outhouses, trees, picnic tables, and rocks, I learned "Veronica loves Miguel," "Panthers 2006 Rule," and a lot of foul language.

If you're willing to pick up after the people before you, this is a great spot.

On Mon Apr 30 14:48:36 2007 Knut from Santa Fe said:
Do not go unless heavily armed.

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