We stayed in the VIP North RV Lot at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Rally-style dry camping, i.e. without any power, water, or sewer hookups, in a dusty parking lot. But we weren’t there for the camping experience — we were there to attend the Balloon Fiesta.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-10-08
• Check out: 2023-10-14
• 6 nights
• We were going to stay 7 nights, but decided to leave a day early… unfortunately (stay tuned!)

Weather:

• Drizzle, partly cloudy
• High temps ranging between 68-81°F, lows around 40-52°F
• Negligible wind most days, gusts up to 35 MPH on one day

Noise:

• No freeway noise
• No train noise
• Some neighbor noise
• Evening fireworks

Site:

• Pull through, gravel
• Needed to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Very unlevel front-to-back; used several blocks
• Rally parking on sites about 50 feet long by about 20 feet wide
• Clean site

Utilities:

• None
• We used our generator and solar each day
• They did offer water fill and waste pumping, though we didn’t use them

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 54-57 Mbps down, 9-15 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
• Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 21 Mbps up, 120 ms ping
• AT&T: 10-18 Mbps down, 9-16 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpster by entrance
• Balloon Fiesta!

Our review on Campground Reviews:

The place to camp for Balloon Fiesta

How can you even evaluate Value/Service/Cleanliness here? The whole point is to be close to the Balloon Fiesta, and it is worth it! $135/night for dry camping in an extremely dusty parking lot would normally garner no stars, but it’s all about location, location, location, so your mileage may vary. This was our second time here. Last year we were in the West lot, and it was fine. This year we were in the North lot, and it was also fine. West has the advantage of being paved and close to the Balloon Museum, but North has the advantage of being closer to most everything on the launch field itself. My advice is to get whatever lot you can if you’re lucky enough to score a reservation.

Top tips:

– Be prepared for the fireworks if you’re in the North lot, as they go off right above you. We saw at least one dog running scared through the lot.

– Be prepared for dust. I don’t think my floors have ever been so dirty.

– As a courtesy to your neighbors (to whom you will be very close), invest in a pipe to divert your generator exhaust away from their windows/outdoor living area (what little of it there is).

– Lastly, you don’t need to come for a week. I would suggest Thur-Sun is long enough to see everything and allow for a day or two of bad weather.

We camped at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park in a Motorhome.

The map; we stayed in the VIP North RV Lot (on the left of this map):

An interactive map:

A screenshot of Google Maps, showing our location; it was a short walk to the northeast entrance gate:

Our site; for most of our stay we had nobody on our driver side, which was nice:

People looking at our National Park stickers:

The leveling control before starting it, showing how unlevel the site was:

To divert the generator exhaust away from the neighboring site, we used some flexible dryer vent ducting ziptied onto the exhaust pipe (though I later remembered that I got some pipe clamps to attach it):

Fireworks above our coach:

An aerial view of the VIP North RV lot, from our flight in a balloon (stay tuned for a post about that!):

You can see our coach on the end of a row, in the lower-center of this picture:

Balloons over the RV lot, and other RVs:

A rainbow:

A balloon landing nearby:

We got a bag of Pinon Coffee, and some Krispy Kreme donuts:

Arrivals:

It was certainly fun to have the balloons flying over our coach.