GO NEW MEXICO
Echo recreation area calls to you along US 84
Renovated Carson National Forest recreation area perfect for a quick stop or overnight stay
Listen up. Listen up. Listen up. now has a campground with electric plugins as well as fancy new vault bathrooms. And potable water is coming, too.
After being closed off-and-on the past few years, Echo rexreation area and its amphitheater is reopened and is a quick stop off of US 84 just past Abiquiu Lake in the -esque red rocks high desert scenery of Rio Arriba County.
The US Forest Service asks you to make sure to pay the $5 daily use fees, even if you're going to stop just for a quick picture, a bathroom break and an authentic echo experience. Those fees are directly used to pay for upgrades like those done here, it says at signs at an information kiosk there.
A paved, short trail leads past covered picnic table to the Echo Amphitheater where you can sing out and enjoy the return sounds.
According to the Carson National Forest web site:
Echo Amphitheater reopened in April 2025.
Potable water went unexpectedly down this spring. It is expected to back online by mid-August.
The site was closed from May 2024 through April 2025 and from Spring 2023 to the end of December 2023 for construction.
Improvements include:
Two restroom replacements
New electric hookups at
New potable fill water station for day-use and overnight visitors (expected to be usable later this summer)
Campground berms, ditches and gutters to mitigate flooding
Road surface improvements to campground loop and parking spaces
New campsite fire rings and picnic tables
It is the first campsite in Carson National Forest with electric hookups, so if you have an air conditioner in your rig, you can stay cool even in the hottest time of the summer. So pay your homage and fees and stop for a overnight visit or just to stretch your legs and hear your own voice echo off the red rocks. It is 80 miles northwest of Albuquerque.
This is one of a recurring short on gems you may have driven by in New Mexico. Stop and stay awhile.
Share your New Mexico adventure channel, rigs and panorama photos with us at go@abqjournal.com. It could appear in an edition of the Sunday Journal in the GO! New Mexico weekly outdoors section.
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