Sumner Lake State Park Campground

Nice place, table with covering at each site. Pretty clean bathrooms. Only draw back is, you are sleeping on a bed of huge rocks.

Date of Stay: April 2015

If you like windy, remote, out of the way places on reservoirs, Sumner Lake State Park is the place for you! :)

Wind is what you expect in the high plains, and Sumner Lake came through. Of course most of New Mexico is windy in the Spring, so why should this place be any different?

I chose a water only site for $10 because it had a stellar view of the lake. If you want/need/crave electric, then you have to make due with spending a few more bucks ( $14 ) and living with zero view. I prefer a view, especially when it comes for a lower price. I mean how many times is the mansion with the ocean view cheaper than the mansion with no view? Yeah, never, so when you have the opportunity…

Great spacing between the sites, at least in the cheap (view) area. The electric and water sites are a bit closer.

That’s about it. Nothing exactly exciting about this park. Unless you like to fish. I heard the fishing is good. However, I don’t fish. I just need places to crash for the night. And this did just fine.

No AT&T. 3 bars Verizon LTE (unboosted).

Well, we were going to stay one night but stayed an extra day because we did like this place. Site had water & electric hookups and a covered table. Our RV was facing the lake and we experienced very beautiful sunsets. The campground was quiet and remote yet we had full 4G reception (ATT & Verizon) and I was able to connect and do my work - another reason why we stayed the extra night.
There is a trail that starts next to the East Campground where we were staying and goes about half way around the lake (3-4 miles). We also rode our bikes and visited the Pecos River below the dam. It felt like an oasis.
There is a dump station at the west side of the lake and we took advantage before we left.
Weather in May was rather mild although very windy.
This campground was a nice surprise.

This was an alternate stop for me, it was out of my way. I am not fond of the main road in/out (84). From the north this road has a lot of rolling which causes prolonged bouncing of my rig. The speed limit is 65 for most of that part of 84 (from the North heading south) and most everyone does well over the posted speed limit, which isn't normally a problem except this is a two lane road with a shoulder that is littered with shredded tire fragments. The road in is also prone to strong cross winds, not totally unexpected in this area of the country. The park itself was very nice, the restrooms we flush with a shower, and clean but dated and worn. The site I stayed in was nice but the sites were close enough I could hear every explicative on the frequent phone conversations from the guest in the site across from me, though the park was very quiet after hours. The park staff was super friendly, as they stopped to check the garbage cans at each site they made a point to talk to us and make sure everything was ok. From what I understand Sumner lake is great for fishing. There was enough hiking trails to keep my pup happy. Primitive camping allowed on the beach, I noticed someone had a 5th wheel parked very close the water. I would recommend for those in the area or passing through, we had a good stay there.

We selected this location as a quick winter trip from Albuquerque. The weather here was windy and cold, but it is New Mexico in February. The sites are well maintained but sparse and close together. There aren’t many views and the most prominent was houses close to the west. We moved after the first day and went to Racoon campground below the dam. Six sheltered sites, three of which are small travel trailer friendly. There are no trails to hike and unless you fish, boredom will set in quickly. Unless you only want an overnight rest stop, drive on by.

Would I camp here again? Maybe, maybe not. Most likely if we needed a stop-over in the future, I would opt for a Walmart parking lot if possible. I suppose it depends on where we are traveling to-and-from would be the biggest determining factor. We were traveling from Alburquerque heading to Muleshoe NWR so this was planned as an overnight stop. We arrived at around 11 pm and found it difficult to navigate during evening hours. At times, it was hard to distinguish the gravel camp road, from the "grassy" areas and campsites. We finally settled into a spot, #4 and because of the late hour, pulled straight in instead of backing in. The next morning when we awoke the spots next to us were fairly (i'm being kind here) over parked with more vehicles and boat trailers being parked in areas where they are normally not allowed. Also, it seemed that our area of the park had not been managed very well. I understand this park may be a big draw for fisherman, but have a having a fish cleaning table 2 feet away from a shared freshwater spigot left us only with the desire to leave before breakfast, which we did. Someone had cleaned a heap of fish on a cleaning table and left a full gut bag, filthy knives and the table without cleaning up there mess. There was a bit more lighting outside at night than I prefer, but the park was quiet.

We had business in Fort Sumner, or we would not have been in Fort Sumner in June. That being said, overall it was a pretty good camping experience. It was 100 degrees so we took a site with electric and water. The electric was only 30 amp (we would prefer 50 at that temperature so we could run 2 AC's, but it did cool down). We checked out the Bosque de Redondo campground also, but with the temperatures and that being no electric we came to this park.

The sites were level, gravel and well maintained. We didn't have reservations but easily found a site we could back our 34ft Airstream into without unhooking. Really, since we had a 50 amp generator we might have taken dispersed camping on the lake if we had known the park better--the lake had a good shoreline and really nice camping spots.

The roads to the park were all easy and well maintained. It's about twenty or thirty minutes out of Fort Sumner, so it's remote. Some see that as good, for some it might be negative.

The campground was clean. The bathrooms at our campground included a 3 holer bathroom with one shower that was clean and in good condition. Overall the campground was quiet. When we pulled in a camper came out to the road and gave us the lowdown on all the campsites and recommended 11 as the best for us (he was right). The only downside of the campground was that the covered picnic table shelters were on the wrong side of the campsite on almost every site. (As hot as it was it wasn't very likely we were going to venture out anyway).

So this part of New Mexico isn't particularly pretty, and we didn't expect much. Right before dark we did take our dogs for a walk down to the lake and boy did New Mexico put on a show for us--that drab desert came alive. And it was a great lake for our puppy to play in.

We had excellent cell signal everywhere we were in the park.

I am traveling the norther part of New Mexico over September, and added Sumner Lake on a lark. Turns out though, one of the best parks I've stayed at in New Mexico.

I stayed in Pecos-Site 10 the first 2 days, then decided to boondock down at the waters edge.

WiFi - 4+ bars for both ATT and Verizon - 20mb down, 18mb up

The only negative? - closest facilities are in Fort Sumner, 20 minute drive away.

I stayed here while passing thru NM on the suggestions of others on Campendium - Place was cheap, clean and had very good verizon signal - driving in i had no signal but once in the campground i had a strong jetpack, probably 3-4 and was able to work. Place was quiet, nice lake, showers were hot and free.

Our rate reflected a $4 online reservation fee. Very pretty campground with large gravel sites on a bluff overlooking the lake. Each parking spot is wide enough for two trailers and omg enough to not unhook. Each has either a concrete Ramada for the picnic table or an awning. The sites are close together. There are absolutely no lights in the campground at night, so seeing the moon and stars is nice. The only drawback is it is a long hike to the bathrooms/showers, which are old, but clean. We had 3 bars of ATT LTE.