Quemado Lake: El Caso II Campground - 7/27-7/29/18
Hi y'all,
I've wanted to go to Quemado Lake for awhile, as it's the nearest lake that isn't on the Rio Grande (and therefore super popular). We wanted to go back in May, but something had come up. So, we packed up our fishing gear and camp stuff and managed to arrive around 5 pm on Friday, July 27th, 2018.
We followed US-60 out to Quemado, with a nice drive through the Datil, Crosby, and Sawtooth mountains around Datil. We experienced some drizzle in Quemado on our way in, but it went away not far down NM-32. NM-32 had recently experienced some roadwork and didn't have center stripes when we traveled down it. Turning left onto NM-103, you're on pavement until just before Quemado lake. There, the road turns into graded but well maintained gravel. I didn't anticipate and didn't experience any issues in our sedan, but we did hear some trucks pulling RVs pumping and sliding.
There are quite a few camping options at Quemado Lake. The first two that you drive past as you drive in are Juniper and Pinon campgrounds. Both have plentiful tent and RV options, although Pinon has no hook-ups. Past those are El Caso I - III, which are more primitive but shadier. Even farther back is El Caso Throwdown, which is the only place that allows horses in the recreation area. I'll go over info about each of the campgrounds at the end of the post, including a long version with my review and a TL;DR with just the facts. The FS website says El Caso III is closed for downed trees, but it was open when we went - I think they just haven't updated the website.
We decided to to camp at El Caso for a few reasons. One was this review from thedyrt.com:
Last weekend, we experienced a pretty loud and bright Texas family at Oak Grove (more on that in a future post), and were desperate for something a little quieter, and we really like having a good amount of shade. El Caso seemed to fit all the bills, and so we headed directly there. Plus, bonus, it's free!
El Caso I had one family camping there (out of maybe a dozen sites), but we wanted to explore our options, so we decided to drive around El Caso II, which is supposed to have slightly more shade. A rather large family gathering had set up shop in El Caso II, but there are actually two halves to the unit, so we drove past them into the other half, which we found empty. We chose a site near the dry creek-bed since the road was pretty heavily used and kicked up dust every time somebody drove by. The party, it turned out, was a birthday party for Steve and their camp was so large that I don't think anybody knew you could get to the half we were in, which suited us just fine.
El Caso III also had a large trailer-like RV hanging out there, but the tenants only came home at night. Another family showed up on Saturday, but we hardly heard or saw them as they were at the far east end of El Caso III. El Caso I ended up with two families on Saturday. I could see it getting a little busier on nicer weekends, but not so much so that you'd have to dispersed camp.
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| View of the campground with my back to the road (facing south). The dry creek is between the hill and our site. |
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| The wife and our tent. This is facing southwest from the picnic table. |
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| Facing southwest in the morning. |
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| Didn't realize this picture was blurry until now... Facing east. You can see the next site over. |
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| Facing east from the vault toilet. You can just see our tent at the very right edge of the picture. You can also see some of the other campsites! |
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| Tilly demanding breakfast. Facing north, towards the access road. |
As you can kind of tell from the pictures, ponderosa pines and cottonwoods create a lot of shade for the campgrounds. The main area of our campsite (aka the picnic table and fire ring) had very little shade between 9 am and 2 pm, but that suited us fine as we spent that whole time down at the lake.
One of the most interesting things about the whole Quemado lake area is the amount of firewood. It looks as though the FS (or maybe good Samaritans?), when cutting down trees, cuts the trees into firewood-sized logs (NOT split, though), and then leaves them in neat piles that you can collect from. We found one near the dry creek bed behind our site, and many piles in the adjoining El Caso III campground. There were several on the drive past the other two campgrounds, too. We had stopped at a gas station in Quemado to buy firewood, but it was really only enough for one short-lived fire, so we were very appreciative. I'm not sure if the sheer quantity of available firewood is telling of the recent fire restrictions or the lack of popularity.
On Friday night, we were visited with some thunder and lightning that brought wind and cooler temperatures, but no rain until we were already in bed. The overnight rain made everything nice and damp, but didn't damage anything. It's not a bad campsite to be in with monsoon season around, although we didn't get hit with any direct monsoon storms.
If you aren't in the western half of El Caso I, you have to either walk through the other campgrounds or down the road. We were along the creek and there was a large party of people at the next campsite over, so we opted to follow the creek until we passed their group. We're big on Leave No Trace, so I would normally not walk off trail but they had a few dogs and we had our dog, and the creek is composed of a bunch of basalt rocks so I didn't feel like we were damaging anything by sticking to the creek. I later met them and discovered their dog HATES other dogs, and so it was a good thing we gave them a wide berth. Once you get to El Caso I, the west end has a trail head marked "Large Trail #14" as well as a sign saying "39." It looks like it was an old FS Road at one point (or maybe still is?).
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| The wife on the trail down to Quemado Lake. |
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| As you can see, there isn't a lot of shade. |
I'd give the advice that you'll want to apply sunscreen before heading down, as the trail is very pretty but not shaded. Once you get closer to the lake, you'll have to follow some elk trails to get to the water unless you want to go pretty far out of your way to find the Lakeshore Trail. It looks like there's some lake overflow to the south of the trail, but you'll want to head west.
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| Possibly a lake overflow? The road eventually dead ends on the south side of the mountain that sits south of the El Caso campgrounds. |
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| Looking west towards Quemado lake from the elk trails. |
Previous campground and NM recreation guides mention that Quemado lake once had a floating fishing dock. I didn't see any sign of that. The lake is presently so low that the neither of the two boat ramps actually touch the water, and the boat ramp at the Cove Day Use Area is actually closed, because it's quite far from the water at this point. The other one can still be used as a boat ramp, but your front tires will definitely be on dirt/sand. The lake is still pretty deep and definitely full of some very large and active fish. While the wife fished (spoiler alert: she was very unsuccessful), Tilly and I decided to try to to find the Lakeshore trail.
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| Tilly very hesitantly leaving mom to fish. |
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| Tilly discovered the hard way that you want to be careful when crossing mud, as it can be quite deep. |
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| Fortunately, with all of her dips into the lake, she'd wash all the mud off... but not the smell. |
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| On the south shore of Quemado lake, looking north. The wife is in the background. |
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| Tilly scared several vultures away from this tiger muskie, which would later be visited by some bald eagles. There are several signs notifying anglers of the tiger muskie population, which is apparently one of the largest in New Mexico. |
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| The view from the actual Lakeshore trail, which took us an embarrassingly long time to find. |
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| This guy was guarding the sign for the Lakeshore trail on the dam. |
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| Keeping an eye on me. |
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| The view of Quemado lake from the lake's dam. |
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| This little inlet had some very active bass. They were quite large and apparently had managed to stay that way by not succumbing to any fisherman. Today was no different. |
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| One of the wily bass. |
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| Looking east from Quemado Lake. |
Salmon eggs and powerbait and shiny lures did not interest the fish at Quemado lake. They were definitely alive and well - I saw schools of 2+ foot fish (could be bass, could be the tiger muskies?) from the southern shore, and they frequently hung out near the surface and even jumped around, but they didn't take any bait.
Another thing I discovered when I took the official Lakeshore trail was the path to the scenic point. It turns out, it's little more than an elk trail that's been washed out and I gave up after maybe 300 yards. Next time we go up there, I'll probably try to follow the Largo Trail. The FS has some information on the trails, but does note that many of them aren't well signed.
We left at 2 pm on Sunday as the monsoon storms were rolling in, and went through nastier storms between the Sawtooths and Magdalena. It was disappointing to roll into a very dry and hot Socorro.
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Campgrounds:
Juniper is the closest campground to the lake, with some short trails that lead to the water. The campground is split into two sides: the east side for tents (17-18 sites, one double site) and west side with hookups for RVs (17-18 sites). When I went in July of 2018, the costs were $10/night for tent sites and $15/night for RVs. Up to date information can be found here. The campground is solely composed of juniper and pinon trees, which don't seem to provide much shade. From what I saw driving around, the campsites are relatively private, but some noisy neighbors would be easy to hear from anywhere in the campground as it's really just a few trees that separate the individual sites. That being said, there were no campers on the tent side on Saturday afternoon when I drove through it. The FS website rates the campground as medium-heavy use, but with the lake as low as it is, I think it's probably more in the light-medium category for the tent side.
Pinon is the second closest campground to the lake, although I didn't see any trails from Pinon to the lake. Like Juniper, Pinon is divided into two sides: the east side is normal family sites (23 tent or RV, although there are no hookups) and the west side is a pair of group sites (two 28 x 20 pavilions with tables, charcoal grills, and fire rings). The tent sites are $10/day and the group sites are $35/day for site A, which can accommodate 30 people and $55/day for B, which can accommodate 75 people. Reservations are required for the group sites. We didn't drive very far into Pinon before turning around, but it looks like the sites might be slightly more private than those in Juniper. The pinon and juniper trees are certainly larger, and probably provide good morning and late afternoon shade. Pinon is at the top of the hill behind Quemado lake and probably has some nice views for the sites on the perimeter of the campground.
El Caso I-III is the farthest campground from the lake that still lies within the Quemado Lake Recreation Area. This is a "partially developed" campground that offers picnic tables and firerings, as well as some scattered vault toilets. There is only one entrance into each section of the campground (units I, II, and III), so be prepared to drive past your neighbors or be driven past if you're going to drive to the lake. That being said, there's a very easy, ~1 mile trail to the eastern edge of Quemado lake. The vault toilets I used here and at the Cove day use area were the nicest, best-smelling vault toilets I've come across so far, so do with that info what you will. There isn't a huge amount of privacy between the campsites, although they are all pretty far away from one another. That being said, the nearest campers were a good distance from us and nobody was in the nearest 6 sites, so I doubt it would be a problem. the ponderosas and cottonwoods provide good shade, with some sites having more dense trees than others.
Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Quemado Recreation area. There are more trails that I didn't explore, which cover the mountain south of the lake, and plenty of opportunities to fish or kayak at the lake itself. The access road is easy to navigate, even for our Corolla, and El Caso II was lightly used. If it hadn't been for the birthday party, I doubt we'd have had any noise at all. The lake seemed most popular for people stopping on their way down US-60 or NM-32, but very few people were actually camping.
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Here's the TL;DR Summary:
An overview of Quemado Lake: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/gila/recarea/?recid=79490
Juniper Campground (as of 7/2018)
Operating Agency: USFS Gila NF - Quemado Ranger District
Sites: 17-18 Tent, 17-18 RV w/ hookup (up to 35')
Elevation: 7712'
Cost: $10/night for tents, $15/night for RVs
Reservations?: First come, first serve.
Estimated Usage: Medium-Heavy (per FS)
Dominant Trees: Pinon & Juniper
Tent Pad: Level gravel
Lat/Long: 34.137543, -108.48919
Water: Drinking water on site.
Amenities: Vault toilets. All sites have picnic tables and fire rings. Dumpsters are located at El Caso I and the Cove Day Use Area. RV dump station is at Pinon campground ($5).
Pinon Campground (as of 7/2018)
Operating Agency: USFS Gila NF - Quemado Ranger District
Sites: 23 Tent or RV (up to 30') sites. No hookups. 2 group sites that can accommodate up to 35 (A) or 75 (B) people.
Elevation: 7899'
Cost: $10/night for tent/RV sites, $35 - $55 for group
Reservations?: First come, first serve for single sites. Must call Quemado ranger station to make reservations for the group sites.
Estimated Usage: Light (per FS)
Dominant Trees: Pinon & Juniper
Tent Pad: Level gravel
Lat/Long: 34.1380103, -108.483553
Water: Drinking water on site.
Amenities: Vault toilets. All sites have fire rings and picnic tables. Dumpsters are located at El Caso I and the Cove Day Use Area. RV dump station is $5.
El Caso I-III (as of 7/2018)
Operating Agency: USFS Gila NF - Quemado Ranger District
Sites: 22 primitive sites, according to FS. RVs didn't seem to have any problems pulling in.
Elevation: 7700'
Cost: None.
Reservations?: First come, first serve.
Estimated Usage: Light (per FS)
Dominant Trees: Ponderosa, cottonwood, some pinon and juniper.
Tent Pad: None, but the sites were very flat.
Lat/Long: 34.138036, -108.469777
Water: Drinking water at pinon and juniper campgrounds.
Amenities: Vault toilets. Most sites have fire rings and picnic tables. Dumpsters are located at El Caso I and the Cove Day Use Area. RV dump station is $5.
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