Looking for a great spot to hang near Interstate 40 in New Mexico

[sonic]

I am driving from California to Texas, and I want to camp out along the way. So I was reaching out to the HF's to see if anybody knows a good spot in New Mexico along interstate 40 (or a small number of miles north or south). Preferably a state park type thing. Very low budget to free would be the best.

[Raoul Duke]

Just East of Albuquerque are the Sandia Mountains and the Cibola National Forest. From I-40, you can drive all the way to the crest of Sandia Mountain via NM 14 and NM 536. NM 14 is about 20 miles east of ABQ on I-40. Along the road to the crest, there are a number of National Forest campgrounds. There are also lots of trailheads along this road if you want to venture into the backcountry a bit.

West of Albuquerque on I-40, just north of Grants, is the Mt. Taylor region (also in the Cibola National Forest). By taking 547 north from Grants, you can access the National Forest near Mt. Taylor, which has lots of camping areas and trailheads for the back country. I do not believe there are any designated camping areas with facilities, just open National Forest land.

If you don't mind driving about an 1.5 hours from I-40, you could take I-25 to Santa Fe and then drive up into the Santa Fe National Forest, which is really beautiful. About half way up the road to the ski area is Hyde State Park, which has a really nice campground but it is very close to the busy road to the ski area. Also, from the parking lot of the Santa Fe Ski area, you can access Windsor trail, which heads up into some really beautiful mountains.

[sonic]

Excellent, thank you very much!!!

[Caribou Bentspoke]

There is a state park called Blue Water State Park, right near the Continental Divide off I40. We camped there once in November, I remember my hair froze solid just waking back from the shower, it's over 7000 ft there. They say they have some juniper trees, so there should be something to hang from.