Red Rock Park

A dense campground with amazingly-scenic red rock cliffs and a pair of great hikes. The campground hosts many events, so you should check the schedule before deciding to visit unless you want to be there for the event.

Campground data

Waypoints

Maps

Getting to the campground

About the campground

Plants around the campground

Comments

Campground data:

Controlling agency:	City of Gallup; Parks and Recreation
Official URL:	Red Rock Park
Region:	West-central; Near Gallup.
CG elevation:	7575ft; 2309m
Campsite count:	121. Plus XX in west campground area
Visual density:	100.00. The campground is dense. You can see all the other sites from any given campsite.
Fee:	$20.00. $10 for no hookups, $15 for water only, $20 with hookups per vehicle per night. Weekdays during working hours you can pay with cash, check, or credit card at the office next to the post office. Weekends and after hours, a park employee circles the campground and will collect cash or check only.
Season:	All year. Summer can be hot. Monsoon season can have flash floods.
Dogs:	Yes. on leash
Horses:	Yes. There are corrals for events.
Handicapped accessible:	Yes. Bathrooms are handicapped accessible, but campsites vary.
General tent notes:	There is a tent campsite. Note the singular. There are lots of sandy areas, and if the campground is not full, there are plenty of places to put up a tent.
RV parking surface:	pavement
RV pull-through spaces?	Yes.
RV parking notes:	The pavement where you park is decomposing, and in some cases is packed dirt. Some sites are pull-through, others are not.
General notes:	The campground is close enough to the railroad tracks that you can clearly hear the 100+ trains per day that go by. The good news is that train whistles were rare during our visit. They have events scheduled here, and it is easy to imagine the campground being completely full during them. Check the events calendar before you decide to drop in.
Campground facilities:	water, trash can(s), flush toilet(s), picnic area, cooking grill (Not all campsites have them, some are falling apart.), showers, electrical hookups, water hookups, RV dump station.
Campground attractions:

When we visited it:

Date:	2015-04-11
Cleanliness:	9. Only a few pieces of small litter

Waypoints:

Waypoint	Type	Description
Red Rock Park	Campground	Red Rock Park main campground

Maps:

Paper maps:

Map name	Cartographer	Year	Scale	Topo map?	Online access	Notes
Guide to Indian Country of Arizona Colorado New Mexico Utah	Automobile Club of Southern California	1998	1:0	N	from Amazon (purchase)	Good overview road map for northwest NM. No scale is given on the map. The corner coordinates are approximate.
Wildernesses of New Mexico	US Forest Service	1981	1:1000000	N	No online copies.	Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways.

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Getting to the campground:

Heading west on I-40, take exit 33 and get on the frontage road west. Travel about four miles to NM 566. Turn right (north) on 566 and go half a mile. Turn left at the park entrance (pictured here).

The main camping area will be a right turn after about a wuarter mile.

The route is well-signed.

About the campground:

	The campground is on the edge of a large event field. You can look up the canyon to Navajo Church Rock.
The campground has a prarie dog colony living throughout it. They were too shy for me to get a good photo of them without a longer lens than I own, but you can see their holes and recent digging evidence everywhere.
	The campground is very dense. When we were there, it was far from full. This photo shows 15 or 16 campsites. Only about half of them have a picnic table. Full, the campground will be a parking area.
Most of the campsites are shaded by either elm trees struggling to live in a drought or occasional cottonwood trees, also thirsty.

Plants we saw around the campground:

Cottonwood (Salicaceae Populus)
Elm (Ulmaceae Ulmus)
Fourwing saltbush (Chenopodiaceae Atriplex canescens)
Tumbleweed or Russian thistle (Chenopodiaceae Salsola tragus)

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