Orilla Verde BLM Recreational Area Camping REVIEW

Orilla Verde BLM Recreational Area is beautiful! To get here head North on 68 from Espanola. In Pilar, turn left onto 570 and follow the river. There are 6 different campgrounds but only 2 of the campgrounds have electric/water.

Value 4/5
$3 dayuse, $7 camping or $15 for electric and water. The dayuse is included with your camping fee.

Site Quality 4.5/5
Our packed gravel site #1 in the Rio Grand Campground was level. We didn't have to do any leveling at all. There was a fire ring and a barbeque pit as well as picnic tables. Some sites had covered picnic areas. Electric and water only. No sewer or RV dump. Washrooms/$showers

Facility Fun 3.5/5
Rafting and fishing if you have your own supplies. Hiking.

Natural Surroundings 5/5
You are in a valley surrounded by Mountains, a river behind you. Beautiful mature trees. BEAUTIFUL!
A Rafters paradise as the river is directly behind you and easily accesible from launch area (rafts not motorized boats). There are many trails to hike, and we saw many mountain bikers in the area too.

Bathrooms 4.5/5
Very clean. Outdoor sink for dishes, pay showers at $1 for 3 minute HOT shower (at our Rio Grande campground, only showers here I think)

Staff 5/5
The campground host has been there 1 year and is staying for 1 more year. He was very friendly and stopped by our site a few times to chat. He was very helpful when asking about things in town as well as inquiring as to where we are headed and sharing ideas to go to along the way.

Location 4/5
Only about 15-20 minutes from Toas which has almost everything you need. Including a Walmart that allows Overnighting for RV's, river rafting tours are at the corner of 68 and 570. Visitors centre just Souh of 570.

Overall 4/5
Beauiful, natural surroundings. Not much traffic and safe enough for the girls to run around a bit and not have to worry too much about them. No internet service for about 8 miles North and South of here. Some people had satelittes up but we didn't try ours. Close to Taos. We would come here again even though there was no internet.

An open field and the bahroom/showers behind us. RV site #1

The bathroom/shower building with an outdoor sink
 for tenters dishes



There are tent sites behind us and then the river, fire pit, picnic table
and barbeque pit available



View of the tent sites with covered picnic areas

View of the river

Navajo Lake State Park, driving through New Mexico and Orilla Verde BLM

We woke this am at Navajo Lake State Park. We stopped here as it was late, dark and we couldn't easily find a boondocking site. We really need to do laundry and if we don't find one soon you might start seeing us in our birthday suits! LOL :)

I am not going to do a regular review for this park as we arrived late and left early so I don't think it would be a fair review.  This space was $10 for the night and $14 with electric, as are all the State Parks in New Mexico. Here are a few wet pictures from our departure.

Large pull through site with picnic table/fire pit behind

picnic table and fire pit

View behind us down to the lake

Playground which was too wet to play on :(

From here we travelled through some ever changing weather

Snow

And more snow

Yes that's hail

We saw many of these. Everywhere there are oil drills.

And ended up stopping at Orilla Verde BLM Recreational Area. It was beautiful. The mountains on one side and the river on the other. (review to follow this post)

but it is in a valley and there is no interenet service within about 8 miles north or south.

We paid $15 to say here because we needed to hook into electricity even more then we need laundry. We made a boo boo last night and drained our RV batteries...big oops! So we bought a charger in Taos at Walmart to give them a full 3 cycle charge and are now researching solar ideas. If anyones has some ideas on solar we'd love to hear them :)