Reviews

R AB

This is in the desert but it has great ramadas for a day cookout. The cost is $10 for a day stay. They also have overnight camping. The have a short trail it’s starts out being an easy kept trail. When it ends it becomes a moderate but still easy to follow trail. It is a pleasant walk with rattle snake warnings. The trail ends at

Rebecca Lents

A beautiful ( overpriced ) state park with some of the friendliest employees I've ever met. The trails are nice and range from difficult to easy, the campsites are well maintained and many of them are level. The restrooms were way on the other side of the campground from where I was camping, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm sure those that were right next to it wouldn't share that complaint.. ( I wouldn't have wanted to be right next to them .. though they were very clean and the showers were better than most .. there was a slight smell in that area ). When reserving online, you are hit with extra fees, and I believe the total came to $24 for a primitive campsite for out of state guests .. which is ridiculous. The visitor center has nice displays, and I love that some of the historical features of the area have been kept. I've never paid this much money for a primitive campsite in my life and don't plan to again. There are some great free campsites on BLM land just outside the state park boundaries. Great showers and awesome attendants, custodians, and hosts. The people who work at this state park made it almost worth the price. Bravo.

Renata Remington

LOVE this state park!! Well maintained, great camp host, love the trails. The path to the bathroom was lit up! Who does that?! I want to go back!

Amanda Mueller

Oliver Lee has a nice visitor center and desert garden with labeled plants. Getting there takes you through a pretty bad area and you might question if you are headed to the right place. The hiking is very limited and really has only one very strenuous trail up into dog canyon then a few very short trails that couldn’t even fill a half day. The dog canyon trail is 5.2 miles to the top gaining 3,200’ of elevation then back down making for a full very strenuous day. It is beautiful landscape but the challenge is not for everyone. And the trail maps they have available are ridiculously tiny, you need reading glasses to read the 1/4 sheet of paper and does not have the complete dog canyon trail on it. There is a nice desert campground with very sweet camp hosts and spacious gravel sites, some with utilities and picnic table shade shelters, some without. There are a couple of scattered pit toilets which were actually cleaner and nicer than the one “comfort station” with flush toilets and showers. It was dirty, smelled bad and the showers were scalding hot (not adjustable) and barely spit out enough water to rinse off in. Granted both times I showered were the end of the day after all the families had washed their kids, so mess is expected. But stink? And the showers were just bad. The campground was said to be booked full the whole time we were there but about a quarter of the sites were unoccupied because people who had reserved them didn’t show and didn’t cancel so that someone else could use the site. There were people who had to camp in the overflow parking area with no amenities because of folks who weren’t thoughtful enough to cancel when they couldn’t show up. Please don’t be those people! Cancel if you can’t be there even if it is the same day and you can’t get a refund. Parks are busy and people are waiting for sites.

Blueknight

This is one of my favorite State Parks in New Mexico, close to Alamogordo, White Sands National Monument and White Sands Missile Range. Clean camp sites and bathrooms with hot showers. The best sites are the non electric/water sites, that over looks WSNM. Small but nice museum, nice hiking trails from the campground. Camp hosts are very helpful, and firewood is sold from their host sites.

M Lawrence

This trail was unexpectedly enjoyable. There are two different trails to take and I took the one that goes out more and it was a bit rocky. I highly recommend checking both trails out

Jeff Haessler

We stayed two nights in site 24. It was large enough for our trailer and large pickup and was almost level, as you can see from the photos. Great views in every direction. It's an easy drive into Alamogordo and then west to White Sands National Park, which was cool. It was rainy, so we didn't get a chance to hike into the canyon, but that is on our list for next time.

Rich Morrow

One of my wife’s favorites in all America. Spots were a bit snug for our Grand Design 5ver but we fit at an angle. That angle paid off for the incredible sunset views. Bathrooms were clean and well kept Parks hosts were very friendly and lent us sleds and wax to visit White Sands. White Sands was less than 30 minutes away and worth staying here to visit the National Park. Have a fire, relax with an adult beverage, and be amazed at one of the prettiest sunsets you’ll ever enjoy. Will stay again

Jeff Falk

We happened upon the park during a road trip while checking out other camping sites. It was awesome. Beautiful park. Great amenities for our style of camping (small SUV with sleep area) and enough space between sites. Mostly RV sites where we stayed. Had water and electric hookups. Very clean bathroom/shower house for campers. Volunteers were super nice and the visitor center/museum was nice. We did not hike while there, but it looked like very cool trails.

John Montgomery

This is a wonderful, quiet, relaxing State Park in which to hike and camp. The scenery is gorgeous -- particularly when the cacti are in bloom. The resident unpaid volunteer hosts along with the staff keep the grounds as well as showers/bathrooms tidy. It helps if folks don't litter (glass containers prohibited) and do pick up after their pets. The hosts will loan you a saucer for sledding White Sands dunes, which considering what it would cost to get one at the National Park, makes your stay at Oliver Lee seem free. All reservations until at least Oct 1, 2021 (and maybe thereafter) are by online reservation only at reserveamerica.com. As of Sep 30, 2021, there are new camp hosts.