Water Canyon

Water canyon is a popular camping area; in March when it was still cold, we were one of three groups camping here. Nearby are several hikes, and the area is popular with mountain bikers. Birders also enjoy the avian life in the canyon.

Campground data:

Controlling agency:	Cibola National Forest; Magdalena Ranger District
Location in the state:	Central; Magdalena Mountains
Waypoint(s):	WTRCYN
Elevation:	6600ft; 2012m
Number of campsites:	4. 16 picnic sites also.
When we visited it:	2003-03-29.
Cleanliness:	4/10. We filled two shopping bags with litter that we picked up.
Fee:	$0.00.
Water:	No.
Garbage cans:	Yes.
Fire pits:	Yes.
Cooking grills:	Yes.
Toilets:	Vault. Clean. One set built in 2000.
Showers:	No.
Handicapped accessible:	Unknown.
RV info:	No electrical hookups. No water hookups. No sewer hookups.
When to camp:	Mar--Nov. This season information is from the Forest service information. There is no gate, so you could probably camp there anytime.
General comments:	A good campground for tents. You could probably camp in the picnic area also. We put out the campfire of the people before us. They had poured a cooler of ice on it, but this was not sufficient to put it out. All of the campsites are after the turnoff to Langmuir Lab.

Maps:

Online from Topozone.com
USGS 1:24000 Topo map Magdalena
USGS 1:100000 Topo map Magdalena
USGS 1:250000 Topo map Socorro

Getting to the campground:

From Socorro, head west on US 60 toward Magdalena. A sign on 60 indicates the left (south) turn, and then after about 5 miles you arrive at the campground.

The Water Canyon campground entrance sign

The campground:

	This is the campsite we stayed in after we picked up the litter. We suspect that the campground is prettier when all of the cottonwoods have their leaves.
The campground also has a group area.

Reader comments about this campground:

At Thu Oct 12 09:08:17 2006, Paul M. from Houston, TX said:

A buddy and I were traveling through the Socorro area last month, and consulting our GPS thought Water Canyon CG might make a good camping spot for the night. Unfortunately, when we got there it was posted as being closed for maintenance. Since we had some time to kill, we walked around and explored a bit. It should be reopened by now and I would highly recommend it for campers/RVer/scasual hikers as its small, secluded, well-maintained and its in a very beautiful setting.

At Tue Mar 20 14:25:40 2007, Anonymous from Abilene, TX said:

My wife and I were there 03/13/07 (spring Break). Construction is underway for new campgrounds and facilities because of the construction of a new observatory on top of the mountain.

Once the forest service gets an approval on the new sites there will be bigger camping and picnicing areas plus better personal facilities.

On Wed Mar 21 13:20:20 2007 Amy T from Austin, TX said:
Please note that the only way to find out in advance whether or not the park is open is by contacting the ranger station. The New Mexico parks and US Forest Service web sites do not mention that the park is closed to camping for construction. It is still open for day use.

Contact information for the Magdalena Ranger District:

Cibola National Forest
2113 Osuna Road, NE, Suite A
Albuquerque, NM 87113
Phone: (505) 346-3900
Fax: (505) 346-3901

On Wed Mar 21 13:24:31 2007 Amy T. from Somewhere said:
The current (as of 3/21/07) district ranger is Dennis Aldridge:
daldridge@fs.fed.us
P.O. Box 45
Magdalena, New Mexico
Phone:
(505) 854-2281 [voice]
(505) 854-2332 [fax]

On Mon May 21 09:12:13 2007 Anonymous from Los Lunas,NM said:
On 5/21/07 I contacted the ranger with a e-mail, asking if this campground was open due to the recent comments that I had read online about some ongoing construction. The reply that I got said that the campground was open. I will send another e-mail ask him what kind of changes were made from the contrstuction and when I go to the campsite in a couple of days I'll take some new pictures for the website.

On Fri May 25 13:34:21 2007 KD5NTL from Los Lunas said:
Just got back from this campground and what a great place. when we arrived all 12 campsites had some wood by the fire pits. The only trash that we found was 1 broken beer bottle that we picked up. There are rest rooms located at the entrance of the family camp and another one located between 11 and 12. There was no graffiti in eihter of the restrooms. I did notice that there is little or no shade in the family camps until the sun starts to set about 7:25 in May. We had a tarp and made our little shelter. We also noted that at this time there is no fee to camp here. But, at the entrance we notice that they have installed a pay box. So sometime in the future there will be a fee.

On Wed Apr 23 13:19:42 2008 ajm from abq, nm said:
very nice campground. i was the only one there. spent the entire day and only saw two cars. road up to the campground did rip the starter off my car though, so proceed with caution. excellent place. recommended.

On Mon Sep 29 20:35:49 2008 Thomas C and Tim E from ABQ, NM said:
We went September 28th 2008 and camped two nights. The scenery was beautiful and the campground facilities were nice. There was a lot of litter, but the two pit toilettes were very clean. The surprise was that Pinon nuts were in season, we ended up picking up several bags full! Unfortunately there were a lot of locals out there picking nuts, but once evening fell or you traveled off on a trail you soon broke away from the crowd.

On Mon Mar 30 11:53:32 2009 Brandon C. from Albuquerque, NM said:
We visited this campground on March 26th/27th, 2009. Unfortunately the weather was not in our favor and we were snowed on...but otherwise we enjoyed our trip. Things to note about this campsite:

- Easy to get to (we drive a minivan)

- very clean

- Beautiful views within the canyon from campsites. I was surprised that it was such a nice area!

- several restrooms in campground area, were fairly clean and look almost new

- camp sites are very close to each other, and there is little to separate you from neighbors (trees, etc)

- 75% of the sites looked like they would only be for pop-up trailers/ 25% had a tent pad in addition to the parking space and table area

- Tent pads (where available) are about 16' x 16'

- fire rings are very nice and include a grill that can be over the fire or off to the side

- Not crowded at this time of year (still pretty cold)

- Firewood could be collected away from the campground area, but close proximity firewood is almost non-existent

On Mon May 4 08:05:08 2009 Shari T. from Albuquerque, NM said:
Pretty nice place--nicer than we expected. The mountain kind of pops up in the middle of some grassy plains, so you can see why I was surprised. Pretty, but very dry this time of year--all of the streams were dry. Finding firewood wasn't too difficult. Toilet fairly clean. Nice, easy hiking available. We saw some cows way up on our hike. Lots of squirrels, some lizards. If you live in Albuquerque it's a nice close place.

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