Hyde Memorial State Park

RV campers BEWARE! Bad experience for easy going seasoned travelers here. Beautiful park, lovely trails and we hiked to a waterfall with our dogs. Terrible communication through the reservation service and obnoxious campground host. We thought the rates were great but the experience cost us extra pack up and tons of time. The poor people that supposedly had reserved the spot we were in and already paid for as did we, waited for two hours before we got back to move for them… and this same thing happened to them last time they were here. The miscommunication comes from the answering service person that tells you there are electric and water sites available first come first serve for $ 14 or $ 10 no electric. Non Reservable sites. You get there and the sinage in the electric sites all say reserved all sites are occupied, with permanent placards which we assume are the first come first serve as we we told on the phone. This is the only RV electric area right? And with permanent placards. Which we have never seen. But there are people camping there. But there is no tags of last names or dates of stay posted anywhere. Weird. But there’s a pay station. Long story. We moved and the people waiting were very nice the host blonde woman with little dog was awful, asking the situation miserable for both parties and actually shamed us as human beings. My husband and I are also camp hosts we know the power trippers. But what we wanna now is who takes the cash out of the box when other people show up and pay. We wrote a check which, we will cancel. We offered to pay for a night for the people who were inconvienced but they paid through Reserve America. The terrible camp host said she was the only one in charge.

We had a blast with our three small children sledding just before Christmas. The hills are fun and the people were friendly. Parking is limited and cost $ 5 per car. I recommend that you bring your own sled and snacks. There are restrooms at the base, but they aren’t well maintained. Good luck finding soap. The snow was starting to melt, so I assume that this will be a better place later in the season.

just back from a 4 night stay in Hyde Memorial State Park — Great place to camp and enjoy beautiful scenery. Camp sites are wooded and well tended. No running water so plan accordingly. The Camp Host — Travis and his family were very diligent and friendly and took care of a site problem I had when I arrived. Could be a little noisy due to the Ski Basin Road, but the park itself was quiet. No cell phone service due to the remoteness of the area. Hiked the 11 mile Aspen Vista trail to the top of the Ski Basin and it was challenging for a flatlander from Houston. Recommend to any tent or car camper.

On the day I arrived there was no water or dump station in the whole park! The visitor center was closed in the middle of the day. At the electric campground, no water, no showers (just a single vault toilet). No cell phone service. I drove out of the park so I could call the park and one kind ranger said they were simply «out of water» but that if I came to the ranger headquarters he would let me fill my fresh water tank on the camper van. Without his kindness I would simply have left in tears after a very long drive. This park basically follows a winding road up a thickly wooded canyon outside of Santa Fe. Lots of tall pines and aspen, and in June, wonderfully cool. Still the few electric sites are right next to the road and right next to each other. Fortunately the road isn’t that busy. Not a ton of trails you can walk on that are adjacent to the electric sites and there is no walkway on the road. This shows me two things: A park can have amazing potential but be ruined by poor planning. AND simple courtesy and kindness counts for so much when it comes to travel. I’m sorry this park is having such trouble with water and drought. Again, Reserve America does a very poor job telling you when a park lacks some amenity. I stayed only one night and lost my fee for the second. Without a phone to call a taxi (and go see Santa Fe) and with no shower or dump station, I couldn’t stay. With a small camper can like mine, you can really only take one bird bath shower before the storage tank fills up.