Diablo Canyon Campground

Nice spot. The road in is 7 miles of washboard dirt. I camped there 2 nights in late Nov and it was pretty busy. The vault toilet was open. There are only 3 vehicle campsites - that are pretty private - and 1 large group site - that is right in the center of the loop and has no privacy. The vehicle sites were full but the group one was empty the whole time I was there. There were also people sleeping in vehicles in the parking area. Prob best to try to get there on a weekday.

There were restrooms but they were locked. Camp ground is FREE though! And we enjoyed our overnight stay. We got there at 10pm and there was one car. But as the night went by more cars showed up. Seemed more popular for car camping! But there were great campground set ups with a nice even ground for a tent and a fire pit.

As far as just camping, it's pretty much just open New Mexico desert with some scrub brush, cactus, and a few sparse low trees. Nothing special, and no facilities beyond cleared ground and fire pits (currently closed off), but not too bad if you like this kind of terrain. But the real draw here is the basalt cliffs which are really excellent climbing. There are quite a few trad routes, but also quite a number of intermediate sport routes. If you aren't into climbing, there are a number of great hikes, and it's not too hard to hike up to the top of a mesa overlooking the canyon. Unfortunately when we were out here, the National Forest was closed due to fires, which but a damper on some of our planned activities, but many of the cliffs and the campground itself are on BLM land which is sti

If you're an outdoor adventurer and like the outdoors this place you might like, it takes a little walk for about 20 to 30 minutes inside the canyon, if you are a rock climber this is the place to go.