Ute Lake

Hey It's Me

Spent several days here, enjoyed the sunsets and even swam. Picked up several bags of trash, mostly beer cans. South side primitive camping was great, but I had intended to check out the Mine cove area and the North area of the State Park too. Those two areas were completely closed, no notice on any website and... well... NM increased the cost to use these parks significantly this year. I feel if half the park is closed off, prices should also reflect that.

Jeff Steinbock

We camped in the Silver Mine cove area and it was wonderful! Very peaceful with lots of fish jumping and Canadian Geese coming into the cove every night. This time of year everything is green from the monsoons and lots of wildlife. Migrating tarantulas, and some bull snakes. Water level was super high and buried many sandy beach areas, but great spot for fishing as most bass boats came in the evening and morning fishermen. Rangers came by and were super nice and accommodating. This is primitive camping only with no amenities at the camp nooks and pullouts, but a 5 minute walk to a dumpster and pit toilet.

Jim McDonald

This is one of the best fishing lakes in New Mexico. The campgrounds here are top notch well layed out and clean. I was here just after labor day and rhe park was not crowded at all.

Renee Fry

It is beautiful. But the park needs maintenance! Some of the bathrooms have been closed for 2 years! The one that is open needs steam cleaned. The shelters and tables need paint and upkeep. What the heck is New Mexico spending money on? The very moment you cross into Texas the highway surface is better.....

Bob Ryan

Beautiful view of the lake but very windy was good to stay cooler in heat. On a plateau so 360 vews..

Jen Phillips

We only stayed for one night as we were just passing through, but were very pleased to find that this park exceeded our expectations. The RV sites are pull-through and are exceptionally long. Our Fifth wheel is 44’ long and we had plenty of room to spare after parking it. Each space has a fire pit and a picnic table with privacy walls on 2 sides. The other guests were very quiet at night. I’m not sure if we were just lucky or if that’s how it always is, but we were happy about it! There are trash bins placed all around the park, which is very convenient. Lots of room to walk your dogs, and the grass is not full of stickers and prickly things that would hurt their paws. It would have been nice to stay longer and check out the lake, but alas, we had to head home. Would definitely stay here again!

William Holder

It is a very nice park. It's clean and close to amenities just in case you need anything. The water levels were pretty high.

TADA Family Adventures

We stayed at Zia campground. We had three tents and 5 blow up matresses. The first night and each thereafter we woke up on the ground because the stickers had popped our blow up mattress. The spot was nice and peaceful, we only had one other camper directly nearby and they were RV camping and we didn’t hear much of them. We had 3 young-to-teen kids (7,11,13) and a dog with us. We were unable to even walk around inside of our tent without shoes on and even with shoes on outside you’re still risking mesquite thorns going all the way through your sole and into your foot. We had cellular service (ATT). The swimming spot on the lake was above normal level so it was a bit grassy but our 7 year old loved swimming. We fished with worms and hot dogs but didn’t catch anything. We saw a gopher of some sort digging directly behind us a few feet in our chairs. The showers were an absolute nightmare - I see reviews about people saying it’s too cold ; I wish that was the case. That shower was hot enough to burn you. You could not withstand more than a few seconds before it felt like a hot coal was being pressed on your skin. Don’t even try to rinse any sensitive areas without having a cup, bowl or something to let it cool a few seconds first. We’ve camped at many places and never had a timer so short. 10 seconds is all you get per button press. On our last day we witnessed how they clean the shower house- they spray water everywhere then let it dry. No cleaning utensils or cleaning agents. Our campsite was one of two in the area that didn’t have a campfire ring which was incredibly disappointing to everyone in our group. Campfire stories and smores is half of the reason we go camping. We asked the camp host if they could get us one and he said no he had ordered one but it wasn’t there yet. So we ended up walking to the nearest camp with a ring and having a fire there for s’mores the 2nd night. All in all the campground is pretty nice, we probably won’t return to this location due to so many issues but it is definitely worth a visit as long as you’re prepared for what’s to come and have accommodations. If you have a blow up mattress I would recommend bringing cardboard or something thick to put under it. Stickers are everywhere. And everywhere means everywhere. Your shoes get covered in them just going to the restroom 25 feet away. The camp host drove by our lot Atleast 75 times in the 2 days we were there. He was nice and helpful. AeroCare landed in the baseball field on our 2nd night. That was cool to watch but had us worried something could of been going on. Hopefully they are OK. Edit: I see in a previous review that the yucca bathrooms were under construction a year ago, during our stay; they were STILL under construction. If you’d like to be close to good bathrooms and the shower: don’t stay at yucca.