Customer Reviews

The Best in Tent Camping: New Mexico: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best Tent Camping)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is not worth buying. I bought (regrettably) this book and the 'best tent camping in new mexico'. this review will cover both books as I think both of them are a waste of money, and more importantly vacation time. The proper title for them should be 'best tent camping with a RV'. I'll give an example from each book: 1) The Utah best tent camping with RV suggest among other RV sites to put your tent in the 'Horsethief' campground when visiting Canyonlands. Well, while it is a good campground, there are plenty of RVs there. We were mildly put very surprised to find another campground a few miles closer to Canyonlands with a clear sign saying 'no trailers'. This campground is not even mentioned in the [worthless] book. And it is even nicer than 'horsethief'. 2) The example from 'best tent camping with an RV in new mexico' comes from the 'pancho villa state park' camping. Wow, this one claimed to be beautiful and great for tents, was almost unbelievable. It has ONLY RV sites on pavement about 30-100 ft from a highway, enclosed by a cattle fence. It's like camping in a parking lot next to a highway. I can only assume the rest of this series is the same, but I will not spend money or vacation time to find out. My suggestion is to go where you want to go and find nice camping on site. It is possible, although I don't believe it myself, that the sites recommended in these books have changed since print, but in any case they are not what one would expect from a book with this title. I give it 2 stars because some sites are nice although the recommendations are worth minus one star.

This a great book for getting you started camping in NM. I would advise to always go online to get updates for certain sites but with this book you can plan a great trip.

We used this book to select a campground for a memorial weekend camping trip. The suggestions are nice, and the campground we stayed at was pretty much as described. But I found this book to be simply a list of suggestions and not a whole lot more. While that is still useful to me, the descriptions seemed a little monotonous and redundant and didn't really help to distinguish one campground from another. If you're at a lack for resources, I would still recommend this book, but it may not help you narrow down your choices, other than by location.

After receiving this book for Christmas, I have used it extensively this spring and summer. Overall I would consider it a good reference tool for finding potential campgrounds. While it is very weak on eastern NM, it does have good, but not necessarily up to date, information about the other portions of the state. For example, none of the campgrounds I went to had any prohibitions on loud portable stereos, and quiet hours were not strictly enforced, so you were at the mercy of other campers. However, at 2 of the recommended campgrounds my family were the only campers there. JOY!!! Use it as a guide, not a Bible, and it will prove quite handy.

An author myself, and I just have to comment on Monte's book, since I travelled with him on many of the adventures for this book. I found treasures in New Mexico I didn't know existed...and I've lived here for over 20 years.

At times, we would be driving and I would say "WHERE ARE WE...?" One time, I said while driving through meadows, wildflowers, with pines and streams..." God has kissed New Mexico, and New Mexico has smiled..." We had received so much rain that last year, it was amazing. Then... incredible white sands of NM where you enter another land. I was amazed at the history and many forts and ruins; the Anasazi cave dwellers location...we walked up it and had a wonderful lecture at the site where they lived. Many, many more places, sites, and which are included in this book.

My Professional Review:
The book is filled with real facts; picturesque writing that takes you there. This book is an awesome depiction of New Mexico! Author Monte R. Parr travelled over 10,000 miles to write this book. He found mistakes or rather old information in many of the other books published about camping in NM, so he set about to correct, clarify, and he did a great job. He is an expert in his field. Attractively presented and a great up-to-date resource for campers and adventurers.