Red Canyon

A pair of campgrounds in a ponderosa pine forest with a (dry) stream near the upper camp. With plenty of campsites, this campground will only be full on the busiest of weekends. This campground is the trailhead for three trails which can be used to make two loops. One of these loops is the Red Canyon/Spruce Spring loop.

Campground data:

Maps:

Online from topozone.com Online from terraserver-usa.com USGS Topo Quad 1:24,000 Capilla Peak USGS Topo Quad 1:100,000 Albuquerque USGS Topo Quad 1:250,000 Albuquerque Cibola National Forest map

Getting to the campground:

From Albuquerque, take Interstate 40 East to exit 175 for South NM 337. Take 337 south. From the stoplight, head 28.7 miles south on NM 337 through Chilili until the road ends at a T intersection with NM 55. Turn right (west) and continue another 12 miles passing through Tajique and Torreon to the town of Manzano. Watch for a sign (and then follow it :-) which says: Manzano State Park; Red Canyon Campground; NM 131. After going 2.4 miles on NM 131, you are at the entrance to Manzano Mountains state park. Turn right; you are now on a one-lane paved road. 0.5 mi down the road you get to the forest boundary and the road turns to gravel. A few small side roads branch off, but remain on the main road for 1.8 miles, where you will see a sign for the Red Canyon campground. You have two choices for places to camp. If you choose the (upper) horse camp, you will be camping at the trailheads for three trails. If you choose the lower camp, you add about 0.4mi to your hike. RV camping is at the lower campground. Otherwise, (unless you have horses) there is little to distinguish the two campgrounds.

The campground:

The horse camp has campsites 39-50. Many of the sites are close together. This would be great if you are with some friends at the neighboring campsite. What looks like the best campsite is at the end of the loop on the right, right as you begin turning to the left to go around the loop. Unfortunately, I did not write down the campsite number. A stream runs along the edge of the campground. It was dry when we were camping. The picture shows a campsite with our truck parked in it. You can see the van in the neighboring site as well. There are actually three campsites in this photo.

At the horse camp, but not a part of the fee area is also a picnic area with six picnic sites and a group area with four tables and one serving table. The trail to the lower camp leaves from this picnic area. Two of the trailheads are near the picnic area as well. About 0.4mi away from the horse camp are campsites 1-38. Here is an area designated for RVs, and another area designated for tent camping. We really did not see much difference between the campsites. Not all RV sites were pull-through, and there do not appear to be any hookups except the disconnected water taps. The tent sites did not appear to be any better suited for tents than many of the others, although a few of the non-tent sites were not very flat other than the parking area. The lower campground also has a group fire pit. Here is a photo of campsite 4 in the lower campground.

Reader comments about this campground:

On Sun Aug 3 07:32:50 2003 Anonymous from Albuq. NM said:
Red Canyon is a beautiful forest setting. We watched and heard a storm roll in. Sites were fairly close together. We were saddened to be awoken shortly after sunrise by the engines of ATVs rather than that of the birds singing. The ATV traffic grew remarkably as the morning wore on. This and the dust created prompted us to pack up and leave much earlier than planned.

On Tue Feb 21 09:06:00 2006 John Reynolds from Tijeras, NM said:
Instead of $5.00, the fee is now $7.00. Also, the Manzano Hawk Watch Site is within five miles of this camp; keep this in mind if you're planning to go camping during hawk migration season.

On Thu May 17 19:07:51 2007 Steve from Albuquerque, NM said:
Red Canyon is one of my favorite spots to camp. The best part is the west trail that follows the stream. It's a beautiful little stream with small waterfalls and pools. There are a few places where the trail crosses the stream.

On Mon Jul 14 09:31:36 2008 Mike from Albuquerque said:
As a result of the fires in the Manzano Moutains, Red Canyon is now day use only and is closed to camping. This should reopen as the monsoon season approaches and more moisture falls on the forest.

On Tue Aug 26 15:09:42 2008 brave camper from Abq, NM said:
Very pretty campsite! We camped August 22-24, 2008 We were interuppted by a LARGE party in our campground. It started with the loud music @ 7p. Adding 50 or so people throughout the evening. Music even louder. The group got very loud, we didn't sleep, and it finally wrapped up at 4:30AM. We proceeded to go to Quarai Ruins not far and used thier phone (ours has no reception outside of ABQ) to call a Ranger. They came out later that afternoon when we were back at camp. The ranger(s) ended up kicking them out and charging everyone still there 400 dollars in fines. 150 both for littering and disturbing the peace and 200 for no permit. There were no permits at the lower loop but there were some at the upper loop. We found out later that everyone in the camp complained when the ranger drove in. I'm so glad we called and let this be a warning to any other you-know-whats that this behavior won't be tolerated! :) Our next two days were wonderful. We even saw a deer a couple times in the AM.

Add your comments about the Red Canyon campground.

Visitors since the counter started: 13448

Search ExploreNM.com Search the whole web

Home Hikes Camping Plants Naturalist's Corner Fire restrictions Suggestions NM-related links Packing lists Reviews of books

Copyright © 1997-2007 Kenneth Ingham Consulting, LLC.

For details about the copyright, see the full Copyright statement.

Unhappy? Thinking of suing us? Read this disclaimer.

You can read our privacy statement.