Agency-listedBLMFree
La Junta Lower
Hike-in · Bureau of Land Management · NM · 36.65359, -105.69014
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.
What the record says about the site — La Junta Lower · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- Listed as a backcountry site
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at La Junta Lower
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 6,803 ft.
Fire & smoke — around La Junta LowerNIFC · 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 La Junta Lower · 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
- WWater1 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- LLaundry5 mi
- RxPharmacy6 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- MMechanic6 mi
- EVEV fast charger7 mi
- +Urgent care7 mi
- OOutfitter16 mi
- ShShower28 mi
- DDump52 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 6 mi out.
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 — La Junta Lower
Access
Hike-in
Land
Bureau of Land Management
Elevation
6,803 ft
Ground slope
68.4% · steep
State
NM
Coordinates
36.65359, -105.69014
Cost
Free · dispersed public land, no fee in any source
Getting in
Park at nearest parking · ~0.38 mi in a straight line (trail will be longer)
Nearby & resupply — around La Junta Lower · Bureau of Land Management · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureRed River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Nearest townCedar Springs · ~3.5 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~1.4 mi
- FuelSinclair · ~5.8 mi
- Propane / LPGKit Carson Propane · ~7.7 mi
- GroceriesSangre De Cristo Valley Market · ~5.8 mi
- PharmacyBestCare Pharmacy · ~5.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicQuesta Health Center · ~7.2 mi
- HardwareQuesta Lumber · ~5.5 mi
EV charging — from La Junta Lower · Bureau of Land Management · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger6.7 mi straight-line NE — Village of Questa DCFC (at a public site) · RED_E · CCS · 2 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: not listed · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach10 within 25 mi · 22 within 50 · 79 within 100 · 168 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)18.4 mi — Taos, NM - Tesla Supercharger, Taos
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO11.6 mi — TAOS COUNTY EV NORTH DC 1, Arroyo Seco
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)11.6 mi — TAOS COUNTY EV AC STATION N 1, Arroyo Seco, 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 347212 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around La Junta Lower · Bureau of Land Management · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletWild Rivers Rec Area La Junta Rim Campground Mens Vault Toilet · ~0.4 mi NE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletWild Rivers Rec Area La Junta Rim Campground Womens Vault Toilet · ~0.4 mi NE · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletWild Rivers Rec Area La Junta River Campground Vault Toilet · ~0.4 mi SW · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletVault Toilet El Aguaje (River Site) - Wrra · ~0.4 mi N · BLM
Coming out here — La Junta Lower · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Red River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 68.4% — 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.
- 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 La Junta Lower elsewhere
Other camps near La Junta Lower
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Cebolla Mesa~0.9 mi
- Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument~2.3 mi · fee
- Bear Crossing~4.5 mi
- BLM dispersed camp #2 — Taos County, NM~7.5 mi
The unit that manages La Junta Lower
La Junta Lower is in the Taos Field Office, Farmington 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.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Taos Powderhorn at 11,020 ft, about 14 miles away. It sits about 4,217 ft higher than this camp, so treat it as a guide rather than a reading for this spot. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — La Junta Lower
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
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
auto: hike (road/trail right there)
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
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 La Junta Lower
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 — La Junta Lower
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →Leave no trace →All field notes →