Whites City RV Park — Hotel in Four Corners States

Pros: This IS the closet campground ( I hesitate to use the term RV Park) to Carlsbad Cavern. Cons: the staff is clearly uninterested in transient campers. I called well in advance saying I was a 38' Class A diesel towing. I asked for a pull thru site. The pull thru sites I saw were fit for a (detached) 20' travel trailer at best. There is NO MAP given to campers directing them to their assigned sites (who ever heard of a campground not giving a site map to a camper?). We pulled in off of US Highway 62 onto Carlsbad Cavern Road and immediately saw the large white & black lettered campground entrance sign 300 yards down the road. I pulled into it and onto a one car only SKINNY lane. I followed the lane up the hill and . . . NO OFFICE (what Campground doesn't have an office at the entrance to the campground?). Most of the sites in this upper (horseshoe shaped) camping area were tiny and filled with small old travel trailers and the odd 5th wheel. All looked like long term (permanent?) residents. My rig barely fit around the horseshoe. I called the campground explaining I didn't know where check in is located. After a very confusing and convoluted conversation I finally understood that Check In was in a gift shop back up by the highway. Apparently I missed a little 18" square sign JUST as I pulled off US62 that directed me to the office INSIDE a gift shop (as it turns out during my week stay here I saw a number of other campers who missed the little white sign and drove around looking for the office). After getting more confusing and convoluted directions to the "pull thru" site, in a lower horseshoe shaped camping area, I called and told the clerk not only coukd I NEVER fit onto any of these pull thru sites (too short and too skinny) but there was a camper already on that assigned site. I would have thought that would have clued the clerk in to the fact I was not where he had directed me. I was finally directed to come back to the office. The teenage clerk told me they were the only pull through sites they had but he had back in sites and gave me more confusing directions on how to get to them (P1 - P9). As it turns out the P sites are directly adjacent to Carlsbad Cavern Road. These site are basically a huge gravel area with tiny signs P1 - P9. Backing is no problem as the area is very wide but each site is very narrow. I could not put my awning out because of the camper next to me. These sites slope slightly forward with a hump in the back where the sewer connection located. Because the connection is so much higher than my outlet connection I was unable to hook into the sewer. I husbanded my water usage and lived off my tanks for the week. Not only was the sewer high, the pipe itself was 6" - 8" out of the ground. The water valve gland nut sprayed water constantly. I told the staff that I could not use their sewer and their water valve was spraying water. The staff was wholly uninterested in my concerns. Their primary (only?) concern seemed to selling stuff in the gift shop and gabbing with each other I'm leaving tomorrow and the rear of my coach is sitting in a sea of mud. Residents of the other (upper and lower) camping sites walk by and panhandle. We either went out and did sightseeing or stayed IN our coach. We could not sit out on the (VERY) weather worn pic-nic table. This is NOT a friendly place for Class A diesel motorhomes. Actually, I would not come here is ANY...

I can't speak to the RV portion of the campground but the tent sites were great. There was a covered picnic table, water spigot, and fire ring or pit with a cooking grate at each site. The sites on the inner portion of the loop were all grass with some decent sized trees spread around and the sites on the outer portion of the loop were all gravel and rocks. There aren't specific sites, after check in you just go pick a spot to set up. When we visited there was only one other family so we kind of took up 2 sites to spread out. There was a large covered concrete slab area where you could gather to get some relief from the sun (or rain in our case) between the sites and the bathrooms. The bathrooms were very clean and looked to be recently remodeled. We ran out of toilet paper in one and once we notified the office they came to replace it and cleaned them quickly. The showers were locker room style so don't expect any privacy but they were free and had plenty of hot water. Two issues we had were first they do not sell firewood at the campground. I'm pretty sure every campground I've ever stayed at sells wood but not this one! We had to drive back to Carlsbad to buy some at the Tractor Supply. Not a huge deal IF we had known but it wasn't advertised so... Also if the forecast calls for wind, be ready. Being from Missouri most of the places we camp are shielded from the wind with lots of trees. Not so here! We knew it was going to be windy one night and staked out all of our guy lines but it wasn't enough. Our tent started to collapse in the 40 MPH gusts. I understand this is not the campground's fault but it's just something for the tent campers to be aware of. Also our tent is a huge 12 person "instant" tent so I'm sure a lower profile tent would handle the wind better. Another set of campers whose tent started pulling stakes and blowing away said theirs had survived a wind storm in the Grand Canyon and another at Big Bend but this one was pretty bad. The proximity to the park entrance can't be beat, you could see the entrance from the campground. And there was a trail which leads to the visitor's center of the park that starts from the tent camping area. We only hiked about 1.5 miles of the 3.7 mile trail (3 kids under 10) but the portion we hiked was nice and we'll marked with trail markers and Cairns.

Overall I would recommend this campground for tent campers. The staff was hit or miss. Some were super friendly and helpful while others seemed annoyed when you...

We dry camped, that is why rate is so low. I believe it's $45 a night for a regular full hookup site. We didn't have reservations anywhere and hadn't counted on spring break which is how we ended up dry camping at White's City. The best thing about this campground is its location just a few miles from the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. All other campgrounds are at least thirty minutes away from the National Park. White's City appears to be a collection of businesses all owned by one company - White's City Property Management. The campground has several sections. I saw some campers packed in like sardines right by the highway. Down the hill there were maybe twenty sites that looked like they were more long term. Up another hill are some pull through sites that looked pretty nice. Also up the hill is an area for tent camping and dry camping. I was pretty happy with our setting for dry camping. We had plenty of room and there was a trail right by our site that led right into Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We could have hiked the Old Guano Trail right to the Visitor Center. The restrooms look like they were recently remodeled, but they were dark and seemed dirty. There are two laundry facilites, and both were filthy. Two out of the ten washers were full of dead bugs and shredded toilet paper. The floor was filthy, no broom was provided, no sink in the laundry area. They did have a change machine. I refused to fold clothes on the tables in the laundry, opting to take them back to my motorhome to fold. There is a tiny "grocery store" on site. Very poor selection, mostly snack food, no beer or wine. There is a lot of empty space in the store area, so they could have a bigger selection if they wanted to. I would never pay full price for a camp site here, but I would...