Great family camping experience here at Silver Lake this past July. My family and I came after a busy weekend, which was the last weekend before our boys went back to school July 28th. The two young guys (Reuben) working the camp host checkin lodge were professional, thorough and welcoming. The showers weren't avail due to maintenance/repairs upgrade, but I guess that's what comes with the camping experience. Always good to call ahead to verify the accommodations they have avail. They do sell firewood bundles which were helpful because with the recent rains during that time, made campfires hard to start without dry firewood. The skunks and wandering horses did make our overnight stay interesting. Thankfully we didn't get left in a stinky situation with these little creatures. There were Port-o-potties were avail, which were getting serviced the following morning which was a relief. Hard working crew of personnel at this campground. Will def be back with our family. read more

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If I could give a zero, I would. The old, cranky, ugly, overweight woman host was the worse. She punched my car window after she stormed our car. She was insane. i would NEVER stay here....she was actually horrible!!!!! read more

The campground host STEVE was completely utterly rude and racist the whole entire time we were there. From the very begging he sent to us to a wrong campsite, harassed our family, and REFUSED to let my two of my family members shower because he said we left the area "Trashed" we asked him to explain where and what was left trashed and drove away and almost ran me off and did not want to provide a name or number neither manager or supervisor name and to mention me and my family are mexican and hispanic. The campsite overall was beautiful but the HOST STEVE WAS COMPLETELY AND UNNECESSARILY DISRESPECTFUL. IN FACT I WILL STILL LIKE A SUPERVISOR NUMBER ONCE THIS REVIEW IS READ WE WILL BE TAKING ACTION. read more

If I could rate lower than 1 star I would! Do not waste your time and money stopping here. The staff were rude to not only us but others that came in ahead and behind us. The person taking the money was demanding and rude and the 2 other people at the entrance were abrasive and very unwelcoming. Despite appearing to be open to the public it is very clear that it is not really. Just a cash grab by those that manage it. read more

Upon our arrival we were welcomed by the staff (old lady and her husband). Both kept pointing us where to park and started screaming at us and the cars behind us to keep moving. Very rude. She requested us to exit our vehicle to go pay and reminded us that they have many rules and we needed to obey them or we would be removed from the camping grounds immediately. She was very loud and confrontational. All was good until our departure. We arrived at the exit and noticed two lines of cars exiting. We formed the line and when we reached the front to check out , the same lady who was rude to us when we arrived started screaming that the line we were on was the entrance line, despite no signs shown or indicators. She went on to rudely say that rules are in place to be followed and next time they may not let us in. I just asked her if she was done ranting. She said no and walked away to the car behind us. Horrible experience. read more

Silver Lake NM is now all full hookups for RV sites. Wonderful place for RVs. Stayed there the weekend before the 4th of July, 2023 and had a fantastic time. Well supervised by caring staff! read more

Amazing place. Nice quiet, they have restrooms, showers, water, benches to eat, playground, lake, pretty views and the stars are breathtaking at night! Amen to places like these may god take care of our Mother Nature and may we all continue healing Mother Nature. Thank you read more

It was not for me but it's a nice place. I was looking for somewhere less crowded and bigger, but despite that the staff was amazing, the facilities are very nice and the views are beautiful. I'd like to camp there some night as I hear it's a great place to stargaze. Hopefully not as crowded at night. read more

Campground was very clean the lake was very nice and bigger than I expected it was so beautiful with the trees surrounding it and there was lots of campsites for RVs and tents. The tent sites where we stayed were very large and had a picnic table and a fire pit I purchased bundles of wood at the main office and there was clean restrooms and showers hot and cold and also Porta Johns throughout the campground also with trash cans do at the campground to keep it clean and everything was emptied and clean I recommend this campground five star read more

Silver Lake Campground - Campgrounds Near Me - Mescalero, New Mexico

DO NOT go here!! It is on Mescalero Apache Indian reservation. They have a strict policy that they will not let you drive through to check the campground out. I ask the lady, " how I am supposed to know if I want to camp there"? She said "because it's nice". So how do I know that if I can't see it!!? Dumbest policy I ever heard of. I am posting this all over the internet. read more

Do not be fooled by the name of this place. It's more of a pond than anything, and while it is supposedly stocked with fish, it's so covered in weeds that you will have an almost impossible time catching them. When we arrived there was trash overflowing from every trash can all over the ground next to the water, and there was no where to sit on the trashy muddy shore. Also, it's basically a giant scam run by the natives who manage the place. They specifically won't let you drive through without paying $10 per person, because they know most will be so disappointed that they won't stay and camp or fish. Avoid this place and find somewhere on national forest land. read more

Silver Lake is a natural beauty, ruined by trash, thoughtless neighbors, and no oversight. Our visit started out great, except that it took quite a while to find a spot that had good shade and a flat surface for our tent. However, the site was littered with trash, including fish heads, in an area that has a threat of bears. In fact, there was no effort to contain trash outside of open cans. This was disappointing, but not a deal-breaker. What ruined our stay completely were our neighbors, a gang of 15 or so people who partied and played loud music until 3:00 a.m. At least, we thought, we will get some relaxation and serenity early that morning, but that was not to be. Our neighbors were the energizer bunnies of thoughtless yahoos, blasting music again at 7:00 in the morning. The unforgivable rudeness of our neighbors notwithstanding, the owners did NOTHING to help us and the other 10-15 campsites in range of the noise. We planned on staying two nights, but instead left and headed home, so we could sleep the afternoon away, far from the maddening noise of Silver Lake. read more

Drove in while looking for a campground for future visit. The woman at the store told us we couldn't look around without paying the fee. Won't be back. read more

I find the other reviews of Silver Campground surprising. My husband and I had a great stay. We stayed July 2- 5th. It was a nice getaway away from the summer heat. The area is beautiful and surrounded by trees. Wild horses frequent the campground- such a neat thing to see. The dispersed/tent camping was spacious and many had fire pits and tables. In the tent camping areas there were porta potties throughout. There is even a main area for showers/restrooms. My husband and I didn't check those out because we were in the rv sites. The rv sites were not bad. Some more leveled than others, by that can be common. The inner loop of rv sites that surround the restroom/ shower area were crowded. But we stayed along the outer loop and those were decently spread out. Our back was to the open field - it was nice. I will mention the outer ring of rv sites don't have sewer hookup. Down fall for us but not terrible as they do have a main dump site you can pull up to. The lake is small and moss filled. We didn't catch a fish or get one bite, but we did see others catching fish. Just wasn't our luck I guess. There is quite a bit of trash around the lake and campground. So sad to see. We would pick up trash as we walked our dogs. There were trash receptacles in the front of the camp sites and trash was collected daily. We liked that. Our neighbors were very nice and down to earth. Respectful. That's always nice to be around like minded campers. I will mention we had T-Mobile and didn't get any service. There was one area by the lake that would get one bar. Our truck had WiFi and we were able to use that to get service. Also the front office (male) wasnt the most polite, but the two females we encountered were very nice. It wasn't a bad stay and we would come back. read more

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Probably the best campground area with fishing camping both tent and rv in this neck of the woods for us. Fair prices and most of the staff is friendly except for one lady at the front office who is very rude. But I'm a happy person and I feel more sad for her than mad, she is so bitter when life is good! It will catch up to her eventually. Not wasting my time reporting or calling her in. Other than her everything is good . Camps are clean, restrooms are clean especially the new ones. Very awesome upgrade.....good job guys!!!! Lake is stocked regularly with farm trout which is delicious caught and cooked fresh. The only thing I miss from when we used to go as kids is the the free wood they provided......all you had to do was haul it to your camp an chop it. Now you are on your own to look for wood elsewhere or simply buy it. They extended and created more campsites towards the left end of the lake and north of The restrooms, also an awesome upgrade!!! read more

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Don't go to Silver Lake So we just finished a one night stay at the Silver Lake camp ground. First off, you better be prepared to drop some cash, and I do mean cash because they don't accept card and there is no ATM. They charge $33 for RV and $20 for a Tent for 2 people plus an additional dollar per person. For fishing it is $13 per pole for adults and $10 per pole for kids under 12 to fish for ONE DAY. They're not messing around on those numbers either. We had our almost 2 year old and 3 year old children with us which we paid the additional 2 dollars for and were told it would be $20 for them to be able to put a fishing line in the water. Check the math when you pay as well, we were shorted on change twice and had to ask the desk employee to please give us the correct amount back. They offer WiFi at an additional charge for the password, but don't rely on that because it was out. They sell fire wood for an additional $10 charge but don't rely on that because they were out. Also if you are going as a family, they do not allow you to set up a tent next to an RV and at its closest the two areas are about 100 yards apart. If you can swallow all that, when you arrive at your camp site, don't expect it to be clean. I spent the first 10 minutes picking up trash from previous campers and there was broken glass all around the picnic table area, so hopefully you don't have little children with you like we did. When you go to the lake to fish, know that the first 20 feet from shore is nothing but weeds around the whole lake. Best of all, when you go to bed that night comforted by the fact that the front office has sign stating, "No loud noise or music, No exceptions" hanging on the entrance, you will be happy to see that the same female employee who took your money that day will be camped right next to you and will wake you up at 2am screaming (literally screaming) like Yoko Ono singing a song as though she were shooting for the next American Idle. It was echoing throughout the camp site and woke up several other campers who we spoke with the following morning. If you are thinking maybe you could go ask her to be quiet, know that her spouse is yelling almost as loud, using vulgar language and threatening her with violence, telling her to stop singing so loud, and she is still continuing to sing. So, if you do choose to stay at Silver Lake, I wish for you a better experience than we had. Surely it can't always be this terrible. However, we will not be returning for another stay and certainly do not recommend it to anyone we remotely care about. read more

If you are looking for peace, quiet, beauty, and unspoiled grounds, do not come to this campground, especially on a summer weekend. We came on a Saturday evening in July and were very disappointed to find that the place did not in any way relate to the glorious review in a certain book recommending tent campgrounds in New Mexico. The review was written in 2006 and perhaps the site has changed hands. For $15 for one night in a tent, you get the following: tents and RVs mixed together in a crowded, helter-skelter fashion; broken glass on the ground; trash everywhere; loud talk, screeching, laughing, and boomboxes blasting music until after 3 a.m.; if you were lucky, you might have a picnic table, but we, like many other "sites," did not. For another $12, you get some firewood and kindling. We had to clean out an area to set up our small tent, and lamented that we did not have a small bulldozer at our disposal. Among the debris were lots of bright blue plastic spoons, a big dead rusting battery, lots of plastic bags and paper trash, used fishing lines, and glass shards. I didn't mind the cowpies and horse droppings so much, because at least they are "natural." The "bathroom" was a disgrace, utterly dirty, dark, and unprivate. In the stalls sat 2-foot-high piles of wet toilet paper (but no dry, clean TP was anywhere to be found), the toilets and sinks were gross; the whole place stank. The "lake" was not what you expect in high country. The whole place was overcrowded, overpriced, olfactorily offensive, noisy, and ugly. The only saving grace was that there were nice ponderosa trees on the perimeter and if you looked east and up and shielded your eyes from the mess on the campground, you saw a nice mountainside. We got out of there at the break of dawn and high-tailed it out as soon as we could. Is this place really run by the Mescalero Apache tribe? I beg whoever owns this area to please clean it up. I did not have the option for "Zero stars," but that is what I would have used to rate this eyesore. read more

I just spent 2 nights at this campground. I took my young grandchildren on their first camping trip and the atmosphere of the campground ruined it. If a "Woodstock" type atmosphere is what you are looking for this is the place. There were "tent cities" scattered everywhere. People drove all over..... not just on the roads. Loud music, drunkenness, shouting, horn honking lasted until 5 am. Spoke with Mescalero law enforcement and they indicated that there should have been a night watchmen. None were ever seen. Manager's attitude upon informing him upon our departure was that we should find another place to camp. No worries we will never go back or recommend. read more

This place is absolutely HORRIBLE! The camp hosts are rude with bad attitudes. The restrooms are filthy, the so called lake is not a lake is more like a pond. No trees for shade and they don't let anyone drive in just to see if you would like to stay without paying $15???? DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME, GAS, or $$$ on this horrible place! Save a trip and go somewhere else!!! read more

The campground is nice, beautiful scenery. The bathroom facility is ok, needs to be cleaned and stocked with toilet paper and soap more regularly. My biggest complaint is that other campers have no consideration as they blasted their Mexican banda music until 3:00 a.m. every night and yelled like if they were at a nightclub. The rules read "No loud music. No exceptions", but there was nobody to enforce this rule. Be ready for sleepless nights due to inconsiderate neighbors. read more

This place sucks!!!!!! The people working in the front desk are not very nice. I tried to visit some friends and they were going to charge me $13.00 for a few hours, Then they said they stocked up on fish the day before and there were fish out there but nobody caught anything. This place is very expensive the restrooms are the most descusting thing i have every seen. You have to buy wood you can't get some from the road. They are very very striked there. The lake is not even worth fishing in it is covered with moss everywhere. But i do like the weather it is cool there if you would go go the Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort and Casino you will have more fun there then Silver Lake. To spend a night it cost $24.00 for an RV. I would not recommend this place to anyone. read more

This place is the worst lake/camping ground I've ever been. The office personnel are very rude and not well mannered (typical Hillbilly attitude). They charged us $30 to go in which we didn't mind at first but then things changed. Both of the toilets and showers were clogged up so human feces were all thought the bathroom floor. There is trash everywhere and it's not the visitors fault, most of the trash cans provided were over filled with no one to clean them out. Portable bathrooms were looked like they haven't been cleaned in over 2 week. "Lake" is full of allege and other trash due to trash can over filled. Do you self a favor and avoid this (literary) S**T hole. read more

When I mentioned to a co-worker that the family and I were going camping at Silver Lake he warned me that it gets crowed. I should have listened. There is a sign at the gate, no drive thruh's, no exceptions. It was a red flag but after driving a few hours I decided to risk it. I asked the host at the gate if it was crowded. He assured me it was not so I paid the fee and went in. We obviously have different definitions of crowded. We drove around for 30 minutes looking for a place to camp. There were no suitable places without having a neighbor camping 15 feet away. So much for not being crowded. It was a carnival like atmosphere and not peaceful at all. No wonder you have to pay to get in without checking it out first. We would have left and found someplace else. As it is we decided to eat the fee and camp somewhere else. The host was nice enough to wave at us when we left. read more