We stayed a couple nights while visiting the caverns. Super nice park however NM isn’t a nice place, Kind of felt like I was in a different country at times, but the campground and people made it better.
Explore Brantley Lake State Park Campground in 360°
This campground has a full virtual tour with interactive campsite markers. Walk through every loop, inspect individual sites, and see the views before you book.
Launch Virtual Tour →✅ Amenities & Features
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📖 About This Campground
Brantley Lake State Park Campground outside of Carlsbad New Mexico offers 50+ RV and tent camping spaces with water and electric. A few sites have sewer. Located in a rural setting (desert) the campground is close to the lake. Multiple trails and dark night skies draw guests to this nice place to camp. About 20 miles from Carlsbad and another 20 miles (40 total) from Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
Picnic tables and fire rings at each site the park has paved roads and parking pads surrounded by natural desert landscape. Shade structures cover the picnic tables. Situated on a slight knoll the campground has excellent views of the sunset (and sunrise if you are an early bird). Speaking of birds the lake is a popular place to bird watch during migratory season.
There are no supplies, food or fuel at this location. Come prepared.
🎥 Videos (1)
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Brantley Lake State Park Campground Video
⭐ 3 Reviews⭐⭐⭐ 3.3
We camped here in a 26' travel trailer. We had a spot looking over the lake, with water and electric. The sites are very nice, with little picnic shelters, grills, and a picnic table at each spot and even the non lake view ones had nice views over desert. We were only there a couple of nights but it would have been a nice place to relax for a while. We used it as a base for Carlsbad Caverns NP and also got to Guadalupe Montains NP, though that was quite a drive as this place is a little off the beaten track. There are restrooms (water was a little cold but it was winter) and it's very peaceful. There is a dump station.
This is a New Mexico state park located 15 miles north of Carlsbad (it is not that bad though because there is a cut-off that allows you to skip the traffic in town when traveling from North to South). A cool side-note about the park is that as you exit onto the highway if you cross straight you can drive 30 miles to Sitting Bull Falls. Silent at night with bright stars and open sky. It feels like you are the only people on earth staying here.