Notable Campground

Valle Vidal Management Unit
The West the way it was

There is a corner in northeastern New Mexico where the land is as it was one hundred, two hundred, or more years ago. It is an expanse of land where the wide open space is filled with tall grass and patches of pine and spruce. Here, elk roam free with deer, turkey, bear, and mountain lions, much as they did a hundred years ago. This place, called Valle Vidal Wildlife Management Unit of Carson National Forest, is a special treasure to those who want to experience the west as it was once upon a time.

Pennzoil Company, the petroleum company, once owned this magnificent 100,000-acre parcel of land. Fortunately, Pennzoil discovered there was little worth exploiting under the lush grassland. In 1982 they donated the Valle Vidal parcel to the USDA Forest Service and the people of the United States. Other then designating the land a Wildlife Management Unit, very little has been done to this near-pristine land.

East of Taos and west of Raton, New Mexico, the Valle Vidal Wildlife Management Unit (theUnit) has retained its natural appearance. In the middle of this almost-wilderness area are two equally pleasant, though very different, campgrounds called McCrystal and Cimarron.

Cimarron campground, located at the heart of the Unit, is draped over a spruce-covered hill. Campsites are scattered among the trees providing pleasant privacy for campers. Nearby creeks, such as Grassy, Vidal, and Ponil, offer good opportunities for anglers to match wits with wily native fish. For those anglers who prefer a more certain thing, there is the rainbow trout stocked Shuree Ponds.

Less then eight-miles east of the Cimarron campground is McCrystal campground. A "rougher" campground, McCrystal has more open sites and a less well-kept appearance. Although stock water is available, safe drinking water for campers is not.

Both campgrounds offer unlimited hiking over the surrounding prairie. The Unit permits no motorized traffic except on established Forest Service roadways, so the Unit, with few designated trails, is truly wide open for exploration. This means some orientation skills are advisable when exploring 100,000 acres.

Although little remains of Pennzoil's earlier presence, remnants of various homesteads can be found. These old homesteads, with their log constructed cabins and outbuildings, are scattered throughout the Unit. One of the more convenient homestead ruins to explore is located south of McCrystal campground at the end of the one mile Ring Place Interpretative trail. Wandering around what remains of the old house, barn, and outbuilding gives a sense of life in those bye-gone days.

Once a playground for the rich and famous, today the Valle Vidal Wildlife Management Unit is open to all who want to experience wide open spaces, clear flowing streams, and robust wildlife populations. Signs in McCrystal and Cimarron campgrounds warn "Buffalo Are Wildlife." Yes, there really are American Buffalo, along with elk, deer, and more, wandering the Unit much as they have since before the white man came. And campers can wander too or just sit and enjoy the West as it might have been a hundred, two hundred, or more years ago.

Click on campground name for detailed description of McCrystal Creek or Cimarron campgrounds.