Agency-listedBLMFree
Parks Ranch Campground
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · NM · 32.11047, -104.40675
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 — Parks Ranch Campground · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- First come, first served
- Tent camping
- Trailers and RVs fit
- Campfires allowed on the record -- check today's restrictions
- No toilet
- No drinking water — carry your own
- No showers
- 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 Parks Ranch Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 3,567 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Parks Ranch CampgroundNIFC · 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 Parks Ranch Campground · 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
- FFuel5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- LLaundry5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- WWater5 mi
- +Urgent care21 mi
- RxPharmacy22 mi
- EVEV fast charger22 mi
- HHardware22 mi
- MMechanic23 mi
- OOutfitter24 mi
- ShShower31 mi
- DDump32 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 5 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 — Parks Ranch Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management
Elevation
3,567 ft
Ground slope
2.1% · flat
State
NM
Coordinates
32.11047, -104.40675
Cost
Free · OpenStreetMap fee tag: no
Nearby & resupply — around Parks Ranch Campground · Bureau of Land Management · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureBlack River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townWhites City · ~4.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~5.0 mi
- FuelChevron · ~22.9 mi
- Propane / LPGPropane · ~26.1 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~4.8 mi
- PharmacyWalmart Pharmacy · ~22.3 mi
- Hospital / clinicPecos Valley Urgent Care · ~20.8 mi
- HardwareBES Supply Store · ~22.5 mi
EV charging — from Parks Ranch Campground · Bureau of Land Management · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger22.3 mi straight-line NE — Carlsbad, NM - Tesla Supercharger (at a hotel) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 20 within 100 · 58 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS24.4 mi — Arby's - Carlsbad, Carlsbad
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO24.4 mi — Arby's - Carlsbad, Carlsbad
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)23.6 mi — McDonald's, Carlsbad, NM (at a restaurant) · Non-Networked · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2023-02-13 · 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 448082 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Parks Ranch Campground · Bureau of Land Management · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSunset Reef Vault Toilet · ~1.2 mi NW · BLM
- RestroomB# 65 - RSS Vault Toilet · ~3.5 mi W · NPS
- Vault / pit toiletCottonwood Vault Toilet · ~3.8 mi W · BLM
- RestroomB66 #17 Visitor Center · ~5.0 mi NW · NPS
Coming out here — Parks Ranch Campground · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- Surface water mapped nearby: Black River (river). 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 2.1% — flat. 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 Parks Ranch Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Parks Ranch Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Mile 10 Dispersed Camping~1.1 mi
- Sunset Reef~1.2 mi
- Chosa Campground~2.1 mi
- BLM public land~20.4 mi
The unit that manages Parks Ranch Campground
Parks Ranch Campground is in the Carlsbad Field Office, Pecos 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 — Parks Ranch Campground
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: drive (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 Parks Ranch Campground
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 — Parks Ranch Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Dumping grey & black →How to read this page →All field notes →