Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
Drive-up · public land · NM · 32.09952, -103.18994
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 →The land manager lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
FREE-STATUS CAVEAT FIRST: the City of Jal's own page confirms this is an RV parking area with a three-consecutive-day limit set by city ordinance, but it does NOT state a price -- the 'free' here comes from consistent camper reports, not the city, so call the city / Jal Police at (575) 395-2501 to confirm before you count on it. Jal is a small oil-and-gas town in the far southeast corner of New Mexico, and its lake park -- built around the distinctive JAL-brand-shaped man-made lake -- has roughly six RV sites reported with water and 20/30/50-amp electric hookups and a dump station, which is a lot of utility for a free stop if it is still live. The limit is three consecutive days per Ordinance 2022-007. Listings describe it as RVs rather than tents. The park itself has the lake and fishing, a playground, courts and picnic pavilions (the pavilions can be reserved through the police department). Honest caveats: this is open, windy high-plains oil country; verify the electric is working and the free status is current before you rely on it. The deal these towns offer is simple: camp free, and they hope you buy fuel, groceries or dinner in town. Be a good guest and it stays free for the next traveler. Town rules change often and we have not visited -- confirm current rules with the town before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,014 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)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 Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) · public land · NM
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- LLaundry0 mi
- FFuel1 mi
- GGrocery1 mi
- @Mail1 mi
- HHardware18 mi
- MMechanic18 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- RxPharmacy24 mi
- WWater41 mi
- EVEV fast charger42 mi
- ShShower44 mi
- DDump44 mi
- OOutfitter54 mi
- AAir-up59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 41-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 1 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 42-mi run (and back).
Not within 60 mi: Propane. 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 — Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
3,014 ft
Ground slope
3.9% · gentle
Nearest rail line
~0.2 mi · main line
State
NM
Coordinates
32.09952, -103.18994
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) · public land · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelValero - Allsup's · ~0.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesSouth Allsup's Convenience Store · ~0.7 mi
- PharmacyMichael's Prescription Corner · ~23.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicWinkler County Rural Heath Clinic · ~18.2 mi
- HardwareBuilder's Supply (Warehouse) · ~17.7 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.2 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
EV charging — from Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) · public land · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger42.4 mi straight-line N — 1000 N Dal Paso St, Hobbs, NM · EV Connect · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 21 within 100 · 44 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)51.4 mi — Pecos, TX - Tesla Supercharger, Pecos
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO43.6 mi — Allsups - Hobbs, Hobbs
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)41.3 mi — BIG O TIRES BIG O TIRES, Hobbs, NM · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- 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 372567 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) · public land · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) · public land · NM
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- About the name: this site is called Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal), but no named stream, river or lake is mapped near the pin — none within 1 mi in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset and none named within 1.6 mi in our OpenStreetMap pull. Either the lake is not on those maps or it is further off than the name suggests.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 3.9% — gentle. 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.
- Rail line mapped ~0.2 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- 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 Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal) elsewhere
How we know this — Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
Stay limit
3 nights (limited to three consecutive days)
Source
municipal park records
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
Coordinates: OSM way 702544860 'Jal Lake Park', leisure=park; pin verified INSIDE the way by a ray-cast point-in-polygon test against node geometry from api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/way/702544860/full.json, 2026-07-21 (data/verify_nm_park_pins.py). RULES are OFFICIAL: City of Jal page https://www.cityofjal.us/community/jal_lake_park.php , fetched 2026-07-21, states 'the parking of any recreational vehicle at the Jal Lake RV Park area will be limited to three consecutive days. (Ord. 2022-007, passed 03-21-2022)'. The city page does NOT state a price (its only 'rent' reference is for the picnic pavilions) -> the FREE status is NOT officially confirmed and comes from consistent, undisputed camper listings (AllStays, The Dyrt, Campendium), which also report ~6 RV sites with water and 20/30/50-amp electric and a dump station. confidence='med' for that reason. Not visited. Verified 2026-07-21.
--- NIGHTSHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-21 (fire 1220, leftover backlog) --- HOLDS UP. Re-read the City of Jal's own page https://www.cityofjal.us/community/jal_lake_park.php this fire. The operative sentence is still verbatim: 'the parking of any recreational vehicle at the Jal Lake RV Park area will be limited to three consecutive days. (Ord. 2022-007, passed 03-21-2022)'. That is an official, ordinance-backed statement that overnight RV stays are permitted here, at a facility the city itself calls an RV Park area -- which is the guardrail that matters. The city still prints NO price (its only 'rent' reference is still the picnic pavilions, via the Jal Police Department 575-395-2501), so the FREE flag still rests on consistent, undisputed camper listings and this correctly stays MEDIUM. OSM way 702544860 'Jal Lake Park' still live (v9) at this coordinate, with the ingest's point-in-polygon verification unchanged. APPROVED.
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 Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
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 — Jal Lake Park RV Area (Jal)
Camping near a reservoir →Water on public land →Dumping grey & black →Picking a spot →All field notes →