Sumner Lake State Park

State Park New Mexico

Visited October 2013

Entrance sign for Sumner Lake State Park

Sumner Lake State Park is located off US-84, about 20 miles northwest of Fort Sumner, NM. Four campgrounds offer camping of all types and dispersed camping is allowed along the lake shore.

Arriving on a late October Thursday, we found the Pecos CG totally empty, giving us our choice of any site. We opted for site 12, with a nice view of the lake.

Greetings from

Sumner Lake State Park

Arriving on a late October Thursday, we found the Pecos CG totally empty, giving us our choice of any site. We opted for site 12, with a nice view of the lake.

Ribbit! The WxToad

Around the campground

All 13 sites in the Pecos CG have electric and water hookups. Six of the sites are reserveable. Here are sites 8 and 9.

Site 3 is one of four pull-through sites. They're interesting because of the placement of the cabana in the island between the road and parking spot.

Sites 1 and 2 are also pull-through sites.

Here's an overall view of the Pecos CG, looking down the hill from the bathhouse.

The bathhouse is small, but offers the basics, including free hot showers.

Across the road is the Mesquite Campground, which has water hookups, but no electricity. No fancy cabanas here, either, but there are simple roofs over the picnic tables. Here are sites 23 and 24.

Site 20 is probably the best site in the Mesquite CG; it's large and has a good view of the lake.

The play area is located near the Mesquite CG and has a large canopy over it, nice on those hot summer days.

There are several dirt roads leading down to dispersed camping locations along the shore. No amenities here, but no problem for a self-contained rig.

There's a short nature trail (less than a mile) that follows along the rocky shore.

On the east side of the lake is another campground, Eastside. There are ten RV/tent sites here, along with some dispersed locations. These are sites 35-37.

Sumner Lake was created by the building of a dam in 1937. It's primary purpose is for flood control and irrigation, along with recreational use.

There are primitive camping areas on both sides of the river below the dam. This is the Shady Side area on the west side of the river. There was a large group of Boy Scouts there the weekend we were at Lake Sumner.

Across the river is the Raccoon area with a few tent sites.

Back on the roadSee all 402 campgrounds