NM Camping: Brantley Lake State Park, Limestone Campground, Carlsbad Area

If your travels take you to the Carlsbad NM area we highly recommend Brantley Lake State Park.

We stayed here (Site 4) for 6 nights in mid-April 2024. Rate per night was $18 per night. Sites are paved (slightly narrow, though) and full hookup. They also have a dump station. However, it was currently under a large reconstruction, fenced off and not available. If you are just driving past the CG (7 miles from highway), you can use the dump station alone if desired for I believe $10.

When we arrived at 3pm, ck in is state for 4 PM (ck out 2 pm) there was no one at the park ck in station and a note directs campers to use the self pay kiosk/iron ranger as you enter the campground itself. We had made our reservations in Dec. For a mid-April stay.  There was no issue with us checking in at 3 pm.

NOTE:  The road (Capitan Reef Rd) and Brantley Lake Rd are narrow and have some broken off edges. Oil trucks are numerous coming from the distant oil fields, so drive with care. Also, as you go past or thru the visitor center/park booth building, it gets very tight, winding and narrow for any size RV (engineers really have no clue sometimes), so go super slow!

As you enter the campground, the right side is for those with advance reservations only. The left side is FCFS sites. Sites are all pretty equal on both sides.  Most of the sites have a pavilion over their picnic table. Many sites have a gravel tent site also besides the paved RV site. Most sites appear decently level. We did have to raise our passenger/curb side by 1″. We also backed way into and over the end of our 40 ft site in order to put our truck broadside to our trailer tongue and off the road a few feet, especially since we were on a curve.

The bath house is modern and clean with free showers (curtains only), but they also have 2 beautidul complete family bathrooms with large shower, sinks, and toilet. These are lockable and what we used for showering. There is no laundry.

There are nice paths from the CG leading to the lake edge. You also can drive, bike, or hike to the day use area on this side of the lake. It is a reservoir with a very large dam. The water level was low but not too bad when we were here and was pleasing to look at, albeit it is in the distance from the CG.

There is a small but decent playground area next to the bath house which is in center of the CG. Also a nice covered pavilion with group picnic tables.

1 camp host is camping near  house, a second camp host was in site next to ours. We did see them use the gator to check some site conditions wtc a few times during our stay but our BBQ grill was not cleaned out and someone had left a reel of fishing line on the picnic table so we are thinking no prep was done.

Roads around CG are also all paved but again narrow. Landscaping is ok, typical high desert with some wild low growing field flowers.

I had our rez sheet printed out for proof if anyone asked, but unlike other public CGs, we have stayed at the camp hosts and had not put a reserved slip with our name and date on the post. Nor did anyone ever come to verify our reservation. I guess bc there are two different sides, they assume those coming into the reserved side are supposed to be there. No biggie.

We found the vibe really nice here. It’s quiet, well maintained and the location is in between the town of Artesia, about 14 miles to the north (Super Walmart, Drug stores, gas, TC Tractor Supply, fast foods etc) and the bigger Carlsbad 40 min to the south which has large retail, hotels and many retail services.

Will we be back? Yes, we will and will try to get site 14, which is the best reservable site in the park. It’s long and has a dedicated spot to park your truck or tow vehicle. It sits at the point end of the loop so you have east and west views.  Sites on the west side back in’s have nice views of lake down below and sunsets. CG is on a Mesa of sorts and can be windy. Awnings beware!

Here are some random shots of sites we would consider for our future stay at Brantley Lake SP.

TIP: Do not walk your dogs after dark. High coyote area, and they could be hiding in bushes and dash out to grab your pet before you can react. Take flashlights when walking after dark and shine them towards road edges to look for sets of eyes.  We heard lots of coyote howls at night.