Agency-listedMunicipalFree
San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)
Drive-up · public land · NM · 35.10780, -103.33271
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.
San Jon is a tiny old Route 66 village in eastern New Mexico, right off Interstate 40 at Exit 356, and its municipal park is one of the better-documented free overnight stops in the state -- a genuine 'pull off the interstate and rest' spot. Camper reports consistently describe free first-come-first-served camping for roughly a dozen to fifteen rigs, with level pull-throughs that fit RVs up to about 43 feet, clean flush toilets and covered picnic tables. There are NO hookups and no showers, so come self-contained. The park also has a ball field and playground. Honest caveats: it is open and windy, there is some light highway noise, and campers mention goathead stickers on the ground -- watch pets' paws and your tires. FREE-STATUS CAVEAT: the village has no web page we could find, so the free status comes from consistent camper reports rather than an official source; confirm locally before relying 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 San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,026 ft.
Fire & smoke — around San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)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 San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) · public land · NM
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel0 mi
- GGrocery0 mi
- EVEV fast charger0 mi
- @Mail0 mi
- OOutfitter18 mi
- HHardware18 mi
- MMechanic19 mi
- DDump19 mi
- AAir-up21 mi
- RxPharmacy47 mi
- LLaundry48 mi
- +Urgent care49 mi
- ShShower59 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: fuel & food sit about 0 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Water, 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 — San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
4,026 ft
Ground slope
0.3% · flat
Nearest highway
~0.3 mi · Interstate 40
State
NM
Coordinates
35.10780, -103.33271
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) · public land · NM (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSan Jon Creek · ~0.7 mi · USGS: intermittent stream
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelValero · ~0.1 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~19.4 mi
- GroceriesChisum Travel Center/Allsup's Convenience Store · ~0.1 mi
- HardwareBruhn Hardware · ~18.4 mi
- Nearest rail linenone mapped within 10 mi
- Nearest highway~0.3 mi · Interstate 40
EV charging — from San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) · public land · NM — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger0.1 mi straight-line NE — Chisum Travel Center San Jon · FCN · CHAdeMO, CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach6 within 25 mi · 7 within 50 · 26 within 100 · 54 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)21.9 mi — Tucumcari, NM Rechargery Relay - U.S. Rte 66, Tucumcari
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)18.4 mi — REC COMPLEX REC PARK 2, Logan, NM · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port 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 347512 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) · public land · NM — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaNHS Rest Stop 31: Llano Estacado/Glen Rio (Welcome Center) · ~16.8 mi E
Coming out here — San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) · public land · NM
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps San Jon Creek as an intermittent stream, ~0.7 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.3% — 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 is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) — abandoned, lifted and out-of-service track excluded, so a rail-trail does not count as one.
- Interstate 40 is mapped ~0.3 mi from the pin. Straight-line, from the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025) — the divided, limited-access highways, which is why a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not appear here.
- 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 San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon) elsewhere
How we know this — San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)
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 364718223 'San Jon Municipal Park', leisure=park; pin verified INSIDE the way by point-in-polygon against api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/way/364718223/full.json, 2026-07-21. Location Oak Ave & 4th St, San Jon, NM 88434, just off I-40 Exit 356 (old Route 66). FREE status + rules from consistent, undisputed camper sourcing: okienomads.com/sanjoncamp, Campendium (san-jon-municipal-park), The Dyrt and TripAdvisor all describe free first-come overnight camping, ~12-15 sites, RVs to ~43 ft, clean flush toilets and covered picnic tables, NO hookups and no showers. San Jon is an unincorporated/very small village with no camping web page found -> confidence='med'. Not visited. Verified 2026-07-21.
--- NIGHTSHIFT REVIEW 2026-08-21 (fire 1220, leftover backlog) --- HOLDS UP, WITH ONE CORROBORATOR DEGRADED. The primary community source re-read this fire, okienomads.com/sanjoncamp, still says San Jon 'has a city park specifically designated for camping and overnight parking' and still reports 'We found the bathrooms to be nearly spotless and they had running hot water' -- so the designated-for-camping claim and the flush-toilet claim both survive. DEGRADED: the Campendium entry recorded at ingest now resolves under a different title ('Village Park San Jon') and its detail fields are all 'Unknown' -- it no longer corroborates the site count, hookups or restrooms. Logged rather than glossed. OSM way 364718223 'San Jon Municipal Park' still live (v4, leisure=park, addr:city=San Jon) at this coordinate. Still MEDIUM -- no village camping page exists. Just off I-40 Exit 356 on old Route 66. 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 San Jon Municipal Park (San Jon)
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