We were looking for a place to go camping in an unimproved location (no established campground). Unfortunately, as I broke my leg on our August campout, backpacking wasn't an option - not even to a relatively short hike location like San Lorenzo Canyon. One of our scout leader friends recommended a car camping spot near Sandia Man Cave. It was described as a nice meadow near a creek with mountains on the other side.
It was a great spot. It's only about a 30-40 minute drive from Albuquerque, and is very easy to get to. In late September, when we went, it was starting to get cool and the trees were changing colors. There was lots of water in the small Las Huertas Creek that ran between the road and the meadow. The meadow had a lot of stiffer tall grasses and weeds, so you couldn't put a tent just anywhere, but there were plenty of places to camp. Parking would be the biggest limitation. There is a parking spot with room for at least 4-5 vehicles on the other side of the road just about 50 feet past (south of) the meadow, on the other side of a small bridge. I've been told by someone that there has always been water in the creek there according to their recollection, whenever they've visited, so I just brought a water filter. You'll end up walking your gear in at least 100 ft from the cars, depending on where you choose to camp in the meadow, so keep that in mind when you pile in all your gear.
It works well as a car camping spot; but being so close to Albuquerque, you could just choose to go to the Sandia Man Cave for a day hike. There is a sign on the road for the cave, and a decent parking area. The trail is easy, and there are stairs leading right up to the entrance of the cave. Additionally, while I forgot to bring my GPS (thus the mere 'approximate' coordinates above), a quick look online afterwards shows lots of geocaches in the area, if you enjoy that like we do.
Directions: Take the Placitas exit, and head east along the main Placitas road (165). Eventually the pavement will stop and the road continues in dirt. The place we parked was about 3.2 miles past the pavement, and about .3-.4 miles past the sign for Sandia Man Cave. There aren't a ton of places to pull off the road, and this will be the only large-ish meadow you'll see (bigger than a football field in length), so it isn't hard to find. You end up being on the NE side of the Sandia Mountains.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/cibola/recarea/?recid=71221
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Thanks for all of these posts. Really helping me plan some new car camping destinations for my family this summer.
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