Valley View RV Park

The Great Outdoors

In a region with few mountains or rivers, finding outdoor recreation requires a little more creativity. If you’re looking for the familiar oasis in the desert, Sumner Lake State Park, a few miles north of town, will be just what you need. It features a 4,500-acre lake created by damming the Pecos River that flows through Fort Sumner. The lake has abundant stocks of largemouth bass, walleye, and catfish if you’ve brought your fishing gear. Kayak and canoe rentals are hard to come by, most likely requiring a visit to Albuquerque, so you’ll probably be limited to shore fishing on this trip.Finding a good walking or cycling trail in this part of the state can also be challenging, but the Goodwin Lake Trail in nearby Clovis is an excellent path for doing both. The route circles a playa - a desert lake formed by rainwater, which dries out seasonally. It’s one of the few water features in the area and an interesting example of desert landscapes.While it is almost three and a half hours' drive to the southwest, a visit to White Sands National Monument is a must whenever you stay in eastern New Mexico campgrounds. The fluffy, white gypsum sand dunes look like snowdrifts from afar, and a hike through them is definitely an otherworldly experience. If you want some truly unique photos for your Instagram feed, White Sands is a great place to shoot. Many visitors to the monument also rent sandboards or sleds to take an exhilarating ride down the dunes.

Exploring the City

Fort Sumner may be a lonely outpost in the desert, but fortunately, it has everything you need for a great RV rental trip. Valley View RV Park is right in the middle of town, so most of the places you’ll go are actually within walking distance. A few restaurants line its main street, serving up classic diner food and excellent Mexican cuisine. There’s also a grocery store in the center of town where you can pick up supplies to prepare a scrumptious meal back at the campground. If you need to fuel up your rig, there are a couple of gas stations near the intersection of Fourth Street and Sumner Avenue.Fort Sumner is light on attractions, but it does have one thing going for it - famed outlaw Billy the Kid died here. A pilgrimage to his gravesite is a must for Wild West enthusiasts, but it's best to stop by the Billy the Kid Museum near the RV park to get some background information first. For a town in the middle of nowhere, this museum is jam-packed with authentic memorabilia from the man’s life, including his pistols and gunslinger chaps. Additional exhibits give context to the outlaw’s life, explaining the desperate conditions in New Mexico during the late 1800s that allowed for such lawlessness.Another historical site you have to see while RV camping at Valley View RV Park is the Bosque Redondo Memorial. The museum sits on the ruins of Fort Sumner, where thousands of Native Americans were interned in the mid-1800s. Exhibits recount the tragedy of their imprisonment and the Treaty of Bosque Redondo that allowed them to return to their homeland a few years later.