What's at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico?
Visiting City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico
What’s there to do at City of Rocks State Park campground and what makes the place so very special? A few things, actually. I recently got the chance to camp with some friends there and the experience was really special.
The name of this place really is its calling card - City of Rocks was formed by a volcanic eruption that spewed ash that hardened into turf (more in Peggy’s geology article on the place).
What happened was some incredible rock formations, some of which are over 40 feet tall, and you can camp right up next to them. In fact in my site, which was site 9, they had formed a patio right inside one of the rock formations in which there was a picnic table. Another spot in this site was an enclosure where there was a trash can.
The rock formations are popular with anyone who is sighted but the kids in adjacent camp sites were the ones who seemed to enjoy them the most and did their best to claim king of the hill by getting to the top of some of the formations.
Speaking of the rock formations it’s clear that Mother Nature has a sense of humor as a number of these formations were…well you might have to explain them to your kids. More likely, though, they’ll notice the shape on their own and make their own jokes about them. I know we did and we’re pretty old children.
I would imagine the view from up there was even more spectacular than the view from ground level, but I have injured myself climbing up rock formations so I wasn’t going to give it a try.
Our friends Michael and Micki and Bryan and Patrick (you’ve heard all of them on various previous podcast episodes) were along for the adventure and had adjacent spots. Each had a good sized space for camp fires and all had metal picnic tables as well.
Amenities at City of Rocks State Park campground
I believe the campground offers a few rows of sites with water and electrical hook-ups but we camped completely off the grid. There is a community water spigot for those spots that don’t have water hook-ups no dump provisions in the park whatsoever.
I didn’t go look at it but Michael tried the shower house and reported that it was clean and nice. There was no fee to use it but he said he had to keep pushing a button to keep the shower flowing.
Dark sky camping
One of the many reasons many people choose this place is that it’s a designated dark sky campground. That means there aren’t cities nearby to obscure an incredible night view.
The true evidence of this is that all the camp sites are named after stellar formations and such.
Since I had my GoPro with me I thought I’d finally try the night photo mode so I set it up as I went off to sleep and woke up to see what it saw. I think what it saw wasn’t as impressive as the what you’d get with the naked eye, especially on a clear night.
Michael and Micki said that the night they got there (the day before we did) the night sky was incredible. But we arrived when the clouds also came in for a look see so our view wasn’t as incredible, but it still wasn’t bad.
So the moral of this story is, stay more than just one night. You never know what mother natures playbill is going to be.
In season there are once-a-month star parties where astronomers bring telescopes and the park also has their telescopes. If astronomy is your thing this is a great reason to be here.
This is a pretty cool place to visit and you can just come here to stay here or explore some of the things in the area.
Attractions in the park
The park has a number of things inside it. Being a desert locale many of these things are related to desert life so the botanical garden inside the park features the flora and fauna of the surrounding desert.
There are also numerous hiking and bicycling trails around the park so definitely bring your hiking shoes. Even if you don’t have them, you can use your sense of wonder and navigate your way through the incredible rock formations that are the namesake of this place.
I didn’t bring my bike, unfortunately, but Michael, Patrick and Bryan all brought theirs and had a lot of fun navigating the trails and pathways. This is a good bicycling park.
Bring your leveling gear - all of it
Because of the natural state of the park there isn’t a flat piece of dirt here from what I can tell. All three of us used pretty much all the leveling tools we brought to bring our trailers as close to level as possible.
Also know that some of the sites are enormous - mine could have easily held three RVs - but some of them are really tight. You really should know what you’re getting into before you can’t get into it.
Nearby attractions
While visiting City of Rocks State Park we ventured into Silver City which is about 40 minutes from City of Rocks. That are got its name from the enormous mine that is not far from it.
But the city is one of those quaint old fashioned towns that are fun to walk through.
While we were there we stopped at Tranquilbuzz Coffee House which seems popular with visitors in the area. I can see why - all the baked goods were really good and baked in house and the company uses a high-quality coffee to make (drum roll please) high quality coffee-based drinks. But even regular ol’ drip coffee is good.
This is a quirky and delightful place and they have live music as well. There are pathways and seats that meander throughout the property to the sound of a babbling fountain. There is a fence made by a local Artis of the cholla trees in the area. It’s just a neat place to go.
Our camping style
All three of us have towable RVs (two travel trailers, one fifth wheel) that have significant solar and battery systems so the lack of power in our sites really didn’t present a problem.
Our ABC Upfitters Mastervolt system just was in its element. We were there in March of 2025 so the daytime temps were delightful and overnights were a bit chilly. I did bring my new Venustas heated jacket and it worked out rather well with the chilly evenings.
I did see a lot of generators but never heard one which is great considering the whole night sky viewing nature of this park.
A very large owl visited us while we were camping
Other attractions and wildlife
While we were there we did see several very large owls which means there’s plenty for them to feast upon.
We also saw a javelina which are also called peccaries. While Wikipedia says these are social critters, we only saw the one making its rounds as we filled water in our RVs.
Should you go?
I really, really enjoyed this State Park. In fact I have yet to camp in a place in New Mexico that wasn’t really memorable in a good way. The public campgrounds here have proven to be really beautiful in so many ways.
Typically Peggy makes our reservations but I did it this time and I found their website to be kludgy and fiddly. Perhaps this is how all state parks might be but my main experience is with the gold standard set by KOA. This is a bit maddening in my opinion.
This was an exceptional place for the unusual rock formations and sometimes enormous camp sites. The dark at night was so pleasant and the place was really quiet as well. There were laughing children climbing the rocks in the day time but I really enjoy hearing happy people, especially the little ones.
