We camped at Lake Van RV Park in Dexter, New Mexico in October 2021
Our previous stop: Cave Canyon Campground Fort Stanton New Mexico Review & Info
Campground Info
Location: 33.195, -104.3598
Cost: $9 – $15
Camping Limit: 30 Day
Amenities: Full Hookups, Restrooms, Garbage
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Essentials Nearby
Town: Dexter, NM – 1 mile
Gas Station: Valero – 1 mile
Dump Station & Potable Water: Use RV Park Hookups – 0 miles ($15 a night)
Grocery Store: Kenny’s Market – 1 mile
Cell Phone Service
Verizon – Excellent
AT&T – Excellent
Nearby Attractions
Roswell, NM – 19 miles
Lincoln, NM – 76 miles
Brantley Lake State Park – 54 miles
Carlsbad Caverns National Park – 84 miles
Guadalupe Mountains National Park – 115 miles
White Sands National Park – 142 miles
Lake Van RV Park Camping Info
The Lake Van RV Park isn’t actually an RV park. It’s more of a city park with a few RV spots with full hookups.
There are 9 sites in total. All of them had at least 30 amp service but only a few had 50 amp.
There’s a sewer hookup and drinking water but no RV dump station. This means if you are there to dry camp you won’t be able to dump and fill without getting an RV site.
There are dumpsters along the fence throughout the park to throw away trash in.
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The most surprising thing about this small “RV Park” is how unorganized the sites were.
Yes, there were numbered power pedestals but the sewer locations seemed to be pretty random.
The people next to us had the sewer to the side, but the only way we could get into a site was to have the sewer connection directly behind our motorhome.
\If we had a large travel trailer we would not have been able to fit as easily.
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Some of the campers there seemed to be taking up as much space as possible to make it look like there wasn’t another RV spot even though there was.
If you get there at it doesn’t seem like there’s an open site there most likely is you just need to look for the numbered power pedestal and park in front of it.
Some of the sites had picnic tables but you are backed right against the boundary to the park which means there are tons of picnic tables in the area.
There’s even a playground, a large group pavilion, grills, and the lake of course.
The lake was surprisingly nice. There’s no swimming in it which would be a bummer in the summer time but you can fish if you have a New Mexico Fishing license and you pay a couple dollars at the office.
There’s also a small road that goes around the entire like. We walked it a few times and it was a beautiful spot to spend a few days.
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One of the funny things about this park is everything costs money. So make sure you pay for what you’re going to be doing.
When we were there in October 2021 much of the summer activities were over but it’s still a good idea to be mindful of what you can do there.
According to this sign that was up when we were there, it’s $15 for full hookups per day, $95 for a week, and $350 for a month.
There was another sign that stated there was a 30 day camping limit with a 7 day in between time.
That means if you want to live there monthly you are going to have to camp somewhere else for a week before you can go back.
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There’s also the option to dry camp around the lake for $9 a day or $50 a week. The only thing about this is there were only a few spots around the lake that were level enough for an RV.
They also say you should pay before getting a campsite otherwise there would be a fee.
There wasn’t anyone working there when we got there during the week, but we made sure there was a campsite and paid before parking using a provided envelope and pay stub.
Lake Van RV Park Campsite Review
It was pretty obvious that pretty much all of the 5 campers that were already there were people living there.
I don’t know if they were following the 30 day rule or not but most of them left for work early every morning and a school bus even stopped by and honked to pick up some kids who were living in one of the campers there.
It wasn’t a huge bother to us but if you like to sleep in every morning just be ready for some early morning noise.
It was also pretty active in the evenings with everyone coming back and there were lots of cars driving around until later at night.
There’s also a train that goes by a few times a day and once at night.
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Otherwise, it’s not the worst place we’ve ever camped but also not the best.
Because we had to squeeze in next to some “residents” we didn’t get a picnic table or really very much space outside of our RV. But we were mostly there to escape a wind storm and recharge our batteries.
For parking to get full-hookups it’s a great little RV park. The price was right and the lake is nice to walk around.
Our phones got good service and data speeds, and the town isn’t far away at all.
We would definitely camp there again.
Have any questions about Lake Van RV Park near Roswell, New Mexico? Leave a comment below.
Is there a meeting room at Lake Van that can be rented for a company meeting? 20 to 25 people? If so please contact me with pricing.