Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · NM · 33.98370, -108.13155
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Bureau of Land Management lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 8,450 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area NIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Bureau of Land Management · NM
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel20 mi
- @Mail20 mi
- GGrocery30 mi
- PPropane32 mi
- MMechanic33 mi
- +Urgent care41 mi
- WWater44 mi
- HHardware59 mi
- EVEV fast charger71 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 44-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 20 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 71-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Dump. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
8,450 ft
Ground slope
22.1% · steep
State
NM
Coordinates
33.98370, -108.13155
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Bureau of Land Management · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureStream · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townNew Horse Springs · ~5.2 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- Fuelnone within 30 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~19.9 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
EV charging — from Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Bureau of Land Management · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger71.1 mi straight-line E — SOCORRODCFAST DC FAST 1 · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · none within 50 · 17 within 100 · 85 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)71.2 mi — Socorro, NM - Tesla Supercharger, Socorro
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)76.0 mi — LOVES 1045 - NM # 1045 CP6K 3, Truth or Consequences, NM · ChargePoint Network · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Best Western Socorro Hotel and Suites - Tesla Destination, Socorro, 71.2 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 314685 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Bureau of Land Management · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletValle Tio Vinces Public Corrals · ~13.1 mi W · USFS
- RestroomContinental Divide-Cdnst · ~16.8 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletGroup Site Double Vault Toilet Restroom · ~19.5 mi NE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletDouble Vault Toilet Datil Campground West · ~19.5 mi NE · BLM
Coming out here — Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- Surface water mapped nearby: Stream. That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 22.1% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area elsewhere
Other camps near Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Valle Tio Vinces Campground~13.0 mi
- Datil Well Recreation Area Campground~19.6 mi
- El Caso 5~21.4 mi
- El Caso Throwdown Campground~21.7 mi
The unit that manages Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area is in the Socorro Field Office, Albuquerque District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Source
Bureau of Land Management recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
BLM RIDB record, agency-listed. Its fee field is empty -- no fee statement -- so the cost is unpriced (field read 2026-09-19). Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up).
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Horse Mountain Wilderness Study Area
When the high country opens →Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Picking a spot →All field notes →