Cimarron Canyon State Park — Attraction in Taos

This was a very "strange" state park RV campground, but I still really liked and enjoyed our 3 days camping here. The overall park is very beautiful & was wonderfully green for this time of year in the southwestern desert mountains.

Its a strange campground, because its basically a huge paved parking lot with truck & trailer combo or RV sized marked parking spaces, but zero hook-ups (which I have since come to learn is a norm for many NM state park RV campgrounds). There is also 2 bathrooms - one with sinks, & another huge vault toilet without running water - but there were no showers anywhere. There was also no marked dump stations. There was 3 running water spigots to use in random places in the parking lot that you were permitted to fill your tanks with, but 2 were located at sites (one was occupied by the host), so are therefore essentially inaccessible.

In spite of these issues I still like the park, as the camp host was super nice & helpful and we met some very nice & helpful other guests here. Its also a pretty location overlooking a mountain/canyon wall (I was even inspired to paint it!). I should also note that the facility is also very well-maintain & kept clean by super nice staff. There is also walking access to the creek, which was nice.

I gave a 4 due to the lack of infrastructure & facilities, however, as I don't think it should be much of a stretch for the state on NM to put in at least a few more electric pedestals & more publically accessible water spigots (since the host has one each) - but I really liked it. I also gave it a 4 for noise. Since its mostly an RV boondocking parking lot, in the summer it seems like every other person is running a generator. The campground is also literally right off the highway (which I've also learned is another NM...

The park itself is really cool. The scenery is awesome, truly the perfect blend of mountain and plains. We stayed for 3 nights, two of them at the blackjack campground. The campground was nice, the fire rings were good and the picnic table was good. If you are tent camping, I highly recommend staying in the blackjack area. You can’t book it online and you do have to walk to the site but it’s not too far. There is no engine break ordinance and people are not super considerate on the main road. I was woken up a few times from very loud vehicles passing. As far as reservations go, if you do a walk in, then you just fill out a slip of paper at the site and pay in the self pay area. Rangers come around and check every night so make sure to have your permit displayed. We tried to go to the visitors center but the door was locked so I guess nobody was there even though it said it was open. THERE ARE NO SHOWERS. So don’t count on being able to wash up. There are vault toilets and actual flushing toilets at most of the campsites. Overall it was good. Recommend doing the clear water creek...

The Camp Host at the Tolby Campground is great! He greeted us at our campsite once we arrived, provided suggestions for hiking trails (Clear Creek Canyon Trail was our favorite) and maps to the surrounding area!

We visited over Labor Day weekend and camped in campsite #10. Cimarron River was within 10 feet of our campsite, so it was very relaxing to hear the river at night. The camp is small, so there were not that many cars in the area -- allowing for a safe environment for children who took advantage of the secluded area to ride bikes and play football. The restrooms were clean and plenty of water spigots near the campsite. The Cimarron River offers excellent opportunities for fishing, even the children caught fish – oftentimes within the first 5 minutes!

In addition to the Clear Creek Canyon Trail, (which is ~ 4 miles from Tolby Campground) we hiked the Tolby Creek Canyon trail which is immediately across the street from the Tolby Campground. Many of the campers that we met, return every year.

Great camp, hope to...