New Mexico State Parks — Attraction in Santa Fe

I have never had great experiences at New Mexico State Parks. Once I had people in my campsite when I arrived and they refused to move. I was a woman, alone with two small children. I had picked the site based on the proximity to the playground. I showed them my reservation and they still refused to move saying it would be "too much work" - there were no camp hosts, so I was just screwed. I even called customer service and they said I would need to find a host to help me...BUT THERE WERE NO HOSTS - so they said there was nothing they could do. They refused to give me a refund.

Now, the state parks basically have a system of fee fraud going on. They are allowing you to make reservations at their parks. They are then cancelling the reservations, siting COVID restrictions as the reason. I totally understand cancelling customers reservations based on covid numbers - it is an ever evolving situation that requires flexibility. What's not okay, is that they are NOT GIVING YOU A FULL REFUND for the site when THEY cancel it. So you book a site with the understanding they will be open. They decide they will NOT be open, so THEY cancel your reservation and charge YOU the reservation fee. This makes no sense. If YOU cancel my reservation, YOU should pay the fee or at least give me a future credit. That's like telling me you have puppies for sale and I put a deposit down, then getting there and you telling me you have no puppies but my fee was non refundable. THAT is fraud. Leading people to believe you will be open and changing your mind month by month and continually charging people is wrong.

I know it doesn't matter to New Mexico, they have made that known in how they are treating customers, but I certainly will never return to their state parks. This has sealed it. The campgrounds are always dirty, people are not friendly and I always leave the state frustrated. Texas, Colorado and Arizona state parks are far superior in their systems and cleanliness...

No don’t try to visit. You’ll waste money and they will find any and every reason to close and take away your right to recreate. NM State Parks just pretends to be about recreation and eco-tourism when all they actually wanna do is prevent folks from having fun on the lakes. We don’t prevent boaters from boating. We don’t cut off rock climbers from rock climbing. We don’t cut off back country hiking. We don’t eliminate hunting because it is dangerous. But they are soooo quick to prevent anglers from ice fishing.

National Forest allows it in NM based on at your own risk procedure. Other states around us have at your own risk ice fishing at state parks also! Let the people ice fish at their own risk please already!

Stop putting the rangers in positions they don’t wanna be in. Stop taking on the liability. If anyone falls in once you say it’s safe, they can sue and you’re liable. It really is that simple. If you stop giving folks a false sense of security you’ll actually have less angler on the ice because you won’t have lied and told them the ice is safe. Newsflash, no ice is actually safe. Only way to create a safe environment is to educate the public regarding what they need when ice fishing to save themselves if they fall in and how to read the ice conditions.

The public demands at your own risk ice fishing. We want the same access anglers in other states get. We want the same access to recreate at state park lakes as we do National Forest lakes. It is time to listen to the people. This crowd of anglers has grown exponentially and we are done being treated this...

We were in New Mexico about 5 months last year, spending money, enjoying several parks. Came back this week to a mess. Apparantly no one in charge drives a big rig. You don't just reserve a spot and fit. Your parks are nice enough but not worth the hassle of reserving a site not knowing what you are getting. To make it worse, once you occupy a site NO ONE can transfer to another site. You have to make a new reservation and take a hit on the reservation charge. No one seems to know how to make a transfer, not Reserve America, the...