Trampas

The Trampas campground is a dispersed camping area with a few tables. Located along a scenic stream, the noise from the stream will help cover the noise from your neighbors. This campground is also the trailhead for four trails.

Campground data

Waypoints

Maps

Getting to the campground

About the campground

Plants around the campground

Comments

Campground data:

Controlling agency:	Carson National Forest; Camino Real Ranger District
Region:	North-central; Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
CG elevation:	7575ft; 2309m
Campsite count:	4. Dispersed camping for most sites means that there is no fixed number of campsites. The campsite count is the number of tables we saw.
Visual density:	2.50. Visual density depends on where you end up and how many people end up nearby. The range when we were there was 0 to 5.
Fee:	$0.00.
Season:	All year. There are no gates and few services, so weather is the biggest factor in any season. In the summer, the camping areas fill up on weekends.
Dogs:	Yes. on leash
Horses:	Unknown.
Handicapped accessible:	Unknown. The toilets are theoretically accessible, but I would not count on this in reality.
General tent notes:	Many areas have flat spots for tents.
RV parking surface:	dirt
RV pull-through spaces?	Unknown.
RV parking notes:	Few, if any sites are pull-through. We did see one dirt area with two entrances from the road; this might qualify as "pull-through".
General notes:	On some maps, this campground is listed as three separate ones: Trampas Diamante, Trampas Media, and Trampas Trailhead. Since there is not a good division between the areas, they are all described here. Pack out all of your trash; there are no trash services here. This campground has plenty of mosquitoes in summer. This campground seems to get people who come to party with alcohol and music, at least on summer weekends.
Campground facilities:	vault toilet(s), fire pit.
Campground attractions:	hiking, wilderness access, wildlife, wildflowers, fishing, stream, year-round access.

When we visited it:

Date:	2007-06-14	2010-06-26
Cleanliness:	5. There was a lot of broken glass around. Going barefoot would be a bad idea. Many people left unburnable trash (e.g., glass, foil) in fire rings.	5. Our campsite had bottles and cans plus the normal small litter.
General notes:	The vault toilet at the trailhead was full and smelly.

Waypoints:

Waypoint	Type	Description
Trampas CG	Campground	Trampas Campground

Maps:

Paper maps:

Map name	Cartographer	Year	Scale	Topo map?	Online access	Notes
Carson National Forest	US Forest Service	2002	1:126720	N	from Amazon (purchase)	Camino Real and Questa ranger districts and Valle Vidal Unit side of the map
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.
Pecos Wilderness, Santa Fe and Carson National Forests	US Forest Service	2004	1:54000	Y	from Amazon (purchase)
Santa Fe National Forest	US Forest Service	2004	1:126720	N	from Amazon (purchase)	East half
Taos	BLM	1994	1:100000	Y	from Amazon (purchase)
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:

Take NM 76 out of Española through Chimayo, Truchas (the highway turns left here), and Las Trampas. About a mile past Las Trampas, turn on C001 which is also forest road (FR) 207. Go through the village of El Valle, and shortly after that you are in the national forest. The road ends at a junction of two streams and the four trails that start here. No sign really indicates that you have reached the campground.

The photo here is of the trailhead area at the end of the road. People were camping immediately to the right of where I was standing to take this photo, and a vault toilet is just out of the pitcture to the left. I did not think it would add anything to the picture.

About the campground:

	The campsites are along the stream, which can make for a pleasant camping experience.
Unfortunately, this campground can be a party campground. Hopefully this guy had fun last night, because he's paying for it now (click on the photo for a larger image and look at the picnic table). We saw several other people who were paying for the previous night's party.
	Here is a better view of the stream that runs past the campground. At the end of the road where the trailheads are, two streams come together.

Plants we saw around the campground:

Alpine Juniper (Cupressaceae Juniperus communis)
Canadian white violet (Violaceae Viola canadensis)
Cinquefoil (Rosaceae Potentilla)
Common cowparsnip (Apiaceae Heracleum maximum)
Creeping barberry or Oregon Grape (Berberidaceae Mahonia repens)
Dandelion (Asteraceae Taraxacum)
Douglas-fir (Pinaceae Pseudotsuga)
Engelmann spruce (Pinaceae Picea engelmannii)
Geranium (Geraniaceae Geranium)
Hooker's evening primrose (Onagraceae Oenothera elata)
Ponderosa pine (Pinaceae Pinus ponderosa)
Red raspberry (Rosaceae Rubus idaeus)
Strawberry (Rosaceae Fragaria)
Thimbleberry (Rosaceae Rubus parviflorus)
Whitestem gooseberry (Grossulariaceae Ribes inerme)
Wood's rose (Rosaceae Rosa woodsii)

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