Agency-listedBLM · dispersedFree
Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · NM · 32.00338, -103.98086
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 Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,825 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)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 Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) · 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
- FFuel13 mi
- GGrocery13 mi
- @Mail16 mi
- LLaundry26 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- WWater30 mi
- EVEV fast charger30 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- HHardware30 mi
- MMechanic32 mi
- OOutfitter32 mi
- DDump45 mi
- ShShower45 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 30-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 13 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 30-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 — Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
2,825 ft
Ground slope
1.5% · flat
State
NM
Coordinates
32.00338, -103.98086
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureRed Bluff Reservoir · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townMalaga · ~15.8 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~12.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesPilot · ~13.0 mi
- Hospital / clinicPecos Valley Urgent Care · ~29.5 mi
EV charging — from Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger30.3 mi straight-line NW — 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 reachnone within 25 mi · 2 within 50 · 20 within 100 · 51 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS33.6 mi — Arby's - Carlsbad, Carlsbad
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO33.6 mi — Arby's - Carlsbad, Carlsbad
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)32.1 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 Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletSunset Reef Vault Toilet · ~27.1 mi W · BLM
- Vault / pit toiletCottonwood Vault Toilet · ~29.3 mi W · BLM
- RestroomB# 65 - RSS Vault Toilet · ~29.4 mi W · NPS
- RestroomB #62 Batflight Comfort Station · ~29.5 mi NW · NPS
Coming out here — Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) · Bureau of Land Management · NM
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Red Bluff Reservoir as a perennial lake or pond, under 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 1.5% — 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.
- 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 Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) elsewhere
The unit that manages Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed) 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 — Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Stay limit
14 nights (STAY LIMIT: 14 days)
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
BLM Carlsbad Field Office, on the Pecos River right at the Texas line. FREE and DISPERSED -- BLM's fee field reads "No Fees" and the site page answers the fee question "None."; BLM's own activity list for the site includes "DISPERSED CAMPING". BLM's description: "Right on the Texas Border, the Red Bluff Reservoir provides access to the Pecos River and boat access to the reservoir created by the Red Bluff Dam. The area provides recreation opportunities including camping, picnicking, boating, fishing, equestrian use, and wildlife observation." FACILITIES: essentially none -- BLM says "There is no potable water at the ramp site. There are no restrooms at the ramp site. Public boat ramp." STAY LIMIT: 14 days. BLM New Mexico dispersed/undeveloped stay limit as published on this site's own BLM record: 14 days. CAUTION, BLM's words: "At certain times of the year the water gets low and may not be accessible for motorized watercrafts." Other posted rules: no fireworks or firearms, no glass bottles on the ramp or in the river, pets leashed. NEAREST TOWN: Loving, NM -- BLM: "The nearest gas stations and stores are located in Loving, N.M., 21 miles north via U.S. Route 285." STATE-LINE CAVEAT: this pin is only about 370 m north of the 32 deg N New Mexico/Texas line and the reservoir itself straddles the border; BLM's own record files the site under State=NM. Coordinate is BLM's recreation-service pin (gis.blm.gov, read 2026-08-17). SOURCE: https://www.blm.gov/visit/search-details/10311935/1 | 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.
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 Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
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 — Red Bluff Reservoir (dispersed)
Camping near a reservoir →Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Off-grid communication →All field notes →