Lincoln National Forest, Oak Grove Campground - 7/20-7/22/18

Hi y'all,

When I was interning in New Mexico in 2015, the wife (then girlfriend) and I had found a really pretty meadow in Lincoln NF and disperse camped there after spending the day at White Sands. Since then, Lincoln NF has seemed too far away to feasibly visit. However, I had a job interview in Roswell and drove past the Capitans, so I thought I'd do some research. Turns out, Socorro is a lot closer to Lincoln NF than I thought!

After doing a bunch of research, and calling the Smoky Bear ranger station, we landed on Oak Grove campground as our destination. Ruidoso had gotten some nasty storms that week, so road conditions were uncertain. However, future expeditions will definitely involve the Upper Bonito dispersed camping area. More on that later!

Because of a late afternoon meeting, we didn't leave Socorro until 5 pm, and thus didn't get to Oak Grove until about 7:00 pm. Fortunately, we made pretty good time on NM 380. The road up to Oak Grove is paved the whole way, and the pavement doesn't end until you're past the camp host in Oak Grove. Normally, I'm a giant baby when it comes to driving up steep mountains but the drive up to Oak Grove is really not bad at all.

We chose site 13, which is a walk in site (many of the sites are walk in sites, just so you know!), and the last site north of the vault toilets at the east end of the campground. We had a great view of a little canyon there. When we arrived, three sites were occupied. A man on a motorcycle had just taken one east of the parking lot, closest to the lot. The site nearest the toilets had tents set up but no tenants, as did the first site on the west side of the path that goes north of the toilets. There were about 5 sites, including one double site that were on the east side of the path that were unoccupied. In total, we could see four sites from our site, only one of which was occupied.

As we were setting up, a couple of kids and a father were looking around the sites. They took the double site, which was the site nearest us. They disappeared for a few minutes and then started coming up with their stuff. This ends up being a pretty large Texas family. There were 4 tents, several adults and teenagers, a toddler, and an infant. We had camped not long before at Villanueva, which is definitely a family campground but everybody obeyed the posted quiet hours and honestly, the kids weren't much of a bother. As a result, I didn't think that having a family so close by would be so bad.

I was wrong.

If you don't want to hear my rants about people being ridiculous, feel free to skip ahead past the small-font, italicized paragraphs. I'm not usually so judgmental, so this won't happen often. Thanks!

I'll just get my complaints done before moving on to all the fun we had that weekend. It was a waxing half moon, which was very bright. We easily moved about our campgrounds, and down to the trash and toilets without a headlamp. Despite this, this family had set up spot lights on some of their tents, plus string lights and little solar garden lights, AND they each appeared to have ultra-bright headlamps and lanterns. They waved these around with zero consideration for anybody nearby.

The first night, they stayed up and were quite loud until past 10 ("quiet hours" time), much to the annoyance of the couple who were across the path from them. They didn't quiet down for some time, including constantly making a noise that sounded like they were pumping up an air mattress (of which they had several). We would later learn that this was the noise of springs in some kind of a portable crib thing. In the morning, they were up at about 5 to 6. Quiet hours are over at 6, but it still wasn't very pleasant.

During the day, they attempted to keep their grills and coolers in the shade, and thus followed the shade of a tree as it moved throughout the day. Unfortunately, this led to them encroaching upon our campsite (they had the double campsite, mind) in the late afternoon. It was really only annoying for the fact that they had quite a lot of space with the site behind theirs being empty (and inaccessible regardless from their overflowing campsite). There didn't seem to be a good reason why they had to get so close to our tent. They played loud music and played with loud toys (a remote-controlled car for some reason?).

The second night, they laid off on the lights a little bit but the infant was not having it. I have never heard of somebody taking an infant camping. It woke up many times throughout the night and cried loudly, as infants do. We were happy to be getting out of there in the morning. Normally, I can put up with a lot before I get annoyed but this was just sort of ridiculous. I was under the impression that most people go camping to relax, but in such tight quarters, some consideration is necessary.

Regardless of the Texas family, we had a pretty good time in Lincoln NF. It was the first weekend that fire restrictions had been lifted and so we got to enjoy having a fire for the first time in months. It was really nice!

The actual view when I opened my tent. Looking south. 

The morning light at 6 am.

So you can get an idea of where the fire ring was in relation to our tent, in relation to the canyon.

Of course, a shot of Tilly.

We were right at the edge of the cliff. A fact which Tilly didn't mind.

Saturday morning, we drove down to Ruidoso to visit the Smoky Bear Ranger station. The rangers there were extremely helpful. We ended up doing some short hikes in the Cedar Creek area before heading back to camp for lunch and some more local exploration. Cedar Creek was pretty, but not very shady. Here's a nice map from the FS website. We did trails 120A and part of 120C.

Like I said, not a lot of shade. This would probably be a nice winter hike, though, as the sun would keep you warm and the low elevation wouldn't be so snowy.

During the interim between Cedar Creek and T15, collecting some downed branches for firewood.

Naturally, we had to explore a little bit!

Adventure dog Tilly!

Hammocking.

Tilly lounged about like the small piglet she is.

We then drove up to Ski Apache and hiked a little bit up the Scenic Trail (Trail T15). That first link is a really good pdf summary, and the second one is the FS website. Anyway, the Scenic trail isn't difficult but for the elevation: it's at 9800'. I struggle massively above 8000', so we went only to the first switchback. Tilly was already tired from our walks in the sun earlier, and was happy to turn around. Perhaps another time, when I'm better accustomed to such elevation.

Starting out on T15.

The aspens that survived the Little Bear fire are huuuuge.

Sitting at the first switch back. It's a weird contrast between the dead trees and the live meadow.

Happily taking a break!

Again, that fire did a number. It's been 6 years, too!

There's a vista pull off spot close to Ski Apache. Our campsite was to the left of that big gravel pad down below. Casual 1500 feet below us.

We went back to camp and hammocked about (I love hammocks, sidenote). On Sunday morning, we packed up quickly and headed towards the Big Bonito/Bonito lake area. Bonito Lake is currently closed and isn't expected to open for another year. The Little Bear Fire did quite a number on the area in 2012, and the lake is still being worked on from all the heavy sediment influx, I imagine.

We drove up to the Argentina trail head, which was a slow but not bad drive at all. I could see it being precarious in bad weather but the whole weekend was gorgeous and sunny, so we were fine. We drove past Upper Bonito Dispersed camping area and MAN. That's on our list of places to go in the near future. Talk about gorgeous!

Our hike was Big Bonito to Little Bonito to Cut-Across to Argentina (all of those links are pdfs, in case you're on mobile). Around 5ish miles, but with decent elevation gain. It's shady, covered in wildflowers, and absolutely beautiful. Even the fire scar didn't detract. Apparently, following Little Bonito around the other side of the mountain is even more beautiful but honestly, Little Bonito absolutely annihilated me, so I didn't care what I had to do as long as I didn't have to climb any higher.

Tilly was being uncooperative.

But we got there! Excited for our first ever wilderness hike!!

The trail is well maintained and generally shaded.

And bonus: There's a solid stream almost the whole way up! (Can you spot Tilly?)

Tilly was a fan of this.

Also, so many wildflower!

The trail crossings were also well-signed!

Some signs of the fire.

And some sooty water...

The resulting VERY dirty dog.

The Cut-Across trail still had some really beautiful views (and fire evidence).

What a view.

Return of the wildflowers!

It really is amazing. I don't think I ever saw such flower density in PA.

Our very tired dog on a very large stump.

We returned home very tired, but very happy. Despite the neighbors, it was a really awesome and memorable trip!

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Overall, I'd definitely stay in Oak Grove again but I'd probably aim for a more off-season time. It was a hot and dry weekend around most of New Mexico and West Texas, and the mountains were very popular. It's a beautiful campground with lots of options and lots of nearby things to do, but not a huge amount of privacy. If you can have a site between you and your neighbors, though, you're golden.

TL;DR Campground Info:

Oak Grove:

Operating Agency: USFS Lincoln National Forest: Smoky Bear Ranger District

Sites: 24 Single Sites, 2 Double Sites - No hookups, RVs up to 18' allowed.

Elevation: 8400'

Cost: $6/night for up to 2 vehicles - additional vehicles $6 each

Reservations?: First come, first serve.

Estimated Usage: Medium (per FS)

Dominant Trees: Ponderosa and oak

Tent Pad: Some sites had level, gravel tent pads. Most sites are on an incline. You are likely to find one that's flat enough, though.

Lat/Long: 33.396107, -105.747121

Water: None.

Amenities: Vault toilets. All sites have picnic tables and fire rings. Bear proof dumpsters are throughout the campground.

Official Website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lincoln/recarea/?recid=34196

Other Nearby Campgrounds (Which I didn't explore):

Skyline (high elevation up a windy gravel road!)

Three Rivers (lower elevation, near petroglyphs and a trailhead)

Upper Bonito Dispersed Camping Area (gorgeous but can get really busy)

Monjeau Lookout Dispersed Camping (up the road from Skyline)

South Fork is normally another nearby campground, but it's also closed from the Little Bear fire.

Dispersed camping is allowed on nearly every road in Lincoln, so if you're not feeling neighbors, explore the FS's maps and website!