Black Canyon Campground — Hotel in Four Corners States

Unfriendly to local campers! The assistant host had a conversation with my partner today concerning our stay, and it left me concerned. While they were happy to take his money for the next week, they basically told us that we may be forced leave because they are in the process of changing the camp’s rules in order to cater to out-of-state visitors.

It has been my dream to camp all summer long for years, and due to health conditions I have been unable to until now. Unfortunately, we can’t take off the entire summer for work. So we both leave the campsite long enough for me to drop him off and use the gym to workout. I have a long-term fitness and lifestyle goal of backpacking for at least a few weeks at time in the future so hiking and/or working out are daily activities for me, and I enjoy hiking the Black Canyon trail that runs through the camp. We also use the fire pit to cook when we can. However, this doesn’t workout everyday because sometimes we get back a little late for him to get a full night before he has to be at work at 4AM. I am a substitute teacher in Albuquerque and Santa Fe so I have the summer off, but he doesn’t. I also leave the camp to do food deliveries to help him so at least I’m contributing something.

We’re kind and courteous people who respect the camp and other people. We’re not loud or disrespectful in any way. If anything, we go out of our way to help others and make the camp end trails suitable for others whenever we can. If we see trash or dog waste from another dog, we pick it up. This morning I even removed a fallen tree from the trail so it wouldn’t get in the way of other hikers. I am an artist and I love nature, taking pictures and videos, spending time in the woods alone with our dog. I’m friendly and do not disturb anyone, and neither does he.

That’s why I think it’s a weird idea to try to filter out locals that spend some time in town. We’re your neighbors. We contribute to local economy, and we care about our wilderness lands here in New Mexico the most because we love our state! I’m sorry, but I was ready to give rave reviews. I have videos on TikTok and Instagram of us enjoying the site, and I’m happy to promote our national forest and state parks! However, we feel like we’re being JUDGED for camping and one of us working full time. I want to be able to recommend the site so bad, but I’m unhappy with this.

I went to speak with the camp host, but she was unavailable. If things change after talking to her, I will edit this review. However, at the moment, it stands. We’re good campers who follow the rules and guidelines for the site. We’ve never caused any trouble at all, and we want to resolve this as soon as possible. We love camping, but we can’t be on site 24/7 unless one of us works for the park. (And honestly, I’d consider it as temporary if offered. I do have applicable skills, including extensive customer service experience and knowledge of the forests...

We reserved a camp site online a week prior to showing up. Upon arrival we went looking for our site. We get to the site and it's taken so we decided to drive around looking for an empty site. We found an empty site on the sign for the site it said reserved for 6/23-6/24 (we figured they did their camping and left). We reserved 6/25 so we assumed it was open. That was our fault I admit. But here is were it got weird. We unload our stuff, got the tent up and had put food on the grill when the host shows up. My husband says hello and her response was "you need to pack up and leave, you have ten minutes," (she seems intoxicated). We are super confused now. My husband tells her our reserved spot was taken and we are not leaving. They start going back and forth. He's trying to explain we reserved online, she's saying it's not a thing. She threatens to call the sheriff if we don't leave in 10 minutes. At this point my kids start crying. So I step in and tell her to call him so we can sort this out. She is extremely irate. There is no speaking to her she's almost yelling.. I'm asking her to calm down. She says "if your husband didn't have attitude I would have let you stay, but now you have ten minutes to leave." She gets on her walkie talkie and calls the ranger and leaves. My kids are freaking out. So I start loading things back up. 10 minutes later she shows up with the ranger. He was extremely polite.We explain we did an online reservation. And he tells us they don't really use those since there isn't service up there to check the online reservation. Ok whatever. Lady is still being irate he basically tells her to stop talking. And let's us stay. But only the night. We didn't get to stay the following night, nor did we get a refund. But we were grateful he let us stay. The manner in which she approached us was extremely uncalled for and unprofessional. She does not belong working there. And we will never EVER return to that area. The only nice part was we met really nice ppl out there. The site itself...

Black Canyon Campground exceeded our expectations! This was our first visit and we were impressed with the paved sites. There is a variety of sites to choose from. We ended up reserving site #17, which was pretty private, yet right next to the restrooms. We loved that there is a fire pit with grill and picnic table. It was very beautiful, peaceful, and affordable. The guests were very quiet. Any talking or music we heard seemed distant. The hiking trail is nice for a short hike and we finished it under 45 minutes. There is a host onsite and she seemed attentive to campers. It was my first time camping since I was a kid, and this is great campground for those who don't want to "rough it." You feel like you are in the middle of nowhere, but are only 7 miles from the city.

I wish I could give half stars, as I would give this a 4.5. Minus a half star for the toilets. The vault toilets were okay. The women's had a ton of flies, I just held the door open every time for a moment and most flew out, but they were coming out of the toilet as well. My husband reported the men's did not have this problem. Both had fly traps that needed replacing. We did get an occasional whiff of the restrooms, since our site was right next to them. The women's bathroom ran out of toilet paper. I am glad we brought a bathroom bag with our own TP and hand sanitizer. This is not a deal breaker for us, as it is the reality of camping. However, if vault toilets are provided and there is an onsite host, I would assume they would be attended to.

There are water taps in the campground but no water was available. We only stayed one night and brought...