Agency-listedNPSFeeOpen today
Ponderosa Group Campground
Drive-up · National Park Service · NM · 35.83286, -106.35676
Inside a national park unit
Ponderosa Group Campground sits inside Bandelier National Monument — a national monument run by the National Park Service.
Park rules apply, and they are stricter than dispersed camping: inside a National Park Service unit you camp in a designated campground or on a backcountry permit, not wherever you find a flat spot. Check the park before you go: nps.gov/band ↗
Placed by point-in-polygon against the National Park Service’s own boundary layer (NPS Land Resources Division, 442 units, fetched 18 Sep 2026; this unit’s polygon edited 2024-03-13). Nothing about the price or the legal status on this page was changed by it.
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 →National Park Service 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.
Can I go now? — Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · NM
Open today Year-round per the agency record.
National Park Service record: “Year-round” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Ponderosa Group Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 7,591 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Ponderosa Group 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 Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · NM
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- +Urgent care3 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- MMechanic4 mi
- WWater4 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- RxPharmacy5 mi
- HHardware5 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- EVEV fast charger5 mi
- DDump5 mi
- LLaundry13 mi
- ShShower22 mi
- AAir-up24 mi
- OOutfitter25 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is basically at camp, fuel & food sit about 4 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 — Ponderosa Group Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
National Park Service
Elevation
7,591 ft
Ground slope
5.1% · gentle
State
NM
Coordinates
35.83286, -106.35676
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townLos Alamos · ~5.6 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterWater · ~4.5 mi
- FuelShell · ~4.4 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump stationJuniper Campground Dump Station · ~5.1 mi
- GroceriesLA Market · ~4.6 mi
- PharmacyNambe Drugs · ~4.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicOccupational Medical Facility · ~3.1 mi
- HardwareMetzger's Do It Best · ~4.6 mi
EV charging — from Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger4.8 mi straight-line NE — LAC DPU LOS ALAMOS MUNI · 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 reach18 within 25 mi · 45 within 50 · 100 within 100 · 149 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)23.4 mi — Santa Fe, NM - Cerrillos Road - Tesla Supercharger, Santa Fe
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)4.3 mi — PONDEROSA PINES STATION 01, Los Alamos, 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 347121 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomB-39 Ponderosa comfort station · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomB-38 Ponderosa comfort station · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomB-37 Ponderosa Comfort Station · at this camp · NPS
- RestroomLA - Los Alamos Visitor Center · ~4.5 mi NE · NPS
Coming out here — Ponderosa Group Campground · National Park Service · 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.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 5.1% — 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.
- 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 Ponderosa Group Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Ponderosa Group Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Juniper Family Campground~5.1 mi · fee
- Diablo Canyon Recreation Area Camping and Parking~12.6 mi
- Jemez Falls Campground~14.0 mi · fee
- Redondo Campground~15.3 mi
Who holds the land at Ponderosa Group Campground
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Bandelier National Monument, manager on record: National Park Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Quemazon at 9,500 ft, about 6 miles away. It sits about 1,909 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 — Ponderosa Group Campground
Open season
Year-round
Source
public land 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
Bandelier National Monument, west of the main entrance along NM-4 near Upper Crossing. GROUPS ONLY -- the park says the sites "can accommodate groups of 10-50 people each", so this is not a solo or couple's pull-in. FEE: "Group campsites are $50/night". RESERVATION REQUIRED: the park is explicit -- sites "are available by advanced reservation only. Same day reservations are not permitted." WATER: drinking water is provided, but "Water is not available mid-October through mid-May." SEASON: "open year-round (water is only available from mid-May to mid-October)". STAY LIMIT: not stated on the park's page; not guessed here. NEAREST TOWN: Los Alamos, NM. Coordinate is the NPS Public POIs national dataset pin named "Ponderosa Reservation Group Campground" (mapservices.nps.gov, read 2026-08-17). SOURCE: https://www.nps.gov/band/planyourvisit/ponderosa-group-campground.htm | auto:agency-trust 2026-08-18: state agency GIS record with a source URL and coordinates, confidence not low. Fee value is the agency's own, not field-checked. Not field-verified -- confirm access, road conditions and fire rules before you go.
Season
Read from the agency's own season / closure text in this record (data/conditions.py) and checked against the calendar. The words we read are printed under the verdict at the top of the page.
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 Ponderosa Group 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
- 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 — Ponderosa Group Campground
When the high country opens →Camping near a reservoir →Fire rules & restrictions →How to read this page →All field notes →