Las Cruces NM is a nice city, worth a couple days including visiting Mesilla (eat at La Posta de Mesilla), and White Sands National Monument. If you are going to be camping across Friday, stay at Hacienda, since they have a nice free party every Friday afternoon. It is a bit pricey as a campground, but nice. Otherwise just go to the Passport America campground.

Leaving Las Cruces to get to Carlsbad Caverns you have two choices to get to Carlsbad, take US70 to Alamagordo and then take Cloudcroft Hill up to Cloudcroft (4400 feet of elevation change in 16 miles), and then US82 to US285. Or, brave El Paso, wild traffic, and take US180 through nowhere to get to Carlsbad Caverns/Carlsbad. There is a nice Escapees park north of Carlsbad, the city. Otherwise I can't make any recommendations since it has been many years since we spent time there. Guadalupe Mountains NP is also here, worthwhile for a day. Going to Carlsbad bypasses much of I-10 between El Paso and Fort Stockton.

No special campgrounds in Fort Stockton, but it is worth a full day visit, http://www.tourtexas.com/fortstockton/ftstockhistorical.cfm .  The Annie Riggs Museum is really good.   You can camp at the Caverns of Sonora, http://cavernsofsonora.com/, between Fort Stockton and the Hill Country/San Antonio.   There are decent campgrounds around Kerrville and Fredericksburg to visit the Hill Country.  I think there are FamCamps in San Antonio.  The PA campground in Luling TX, between San Antonio and Houston, is OK.  Houston is a mess to go through.

You do know about http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/.

Sherry: I will mention this one in San Antonio!!! It is owned by a lady and her husband I met on LinkedIn.com Teri and Mark Blascke; Called Hidden Valley RV Park; they just renovated and have some newer spaces. I get their Monthly News letter as they have a website. They are on my bucket list. Worth a Preview on RvParkReviews.com! PIEERE

-- Edited by PIEERE on Monday 20th of January 2014 08:51:02 PM

If you decide to take route from Las Cruces to Alamogordo on 70 by white sands is very good roads, at Alamogordo you will get on 82 and head up the mountain to Cloudcroft which is 16 miles of up hill, the good thing about the other side its beautiful country and its very gradual down hill takes 90 miles to lose the 4400 ft you just climbed in 16. There is the escapee park that he was talking about just south of Artesia about 12 miles or just past that about 3 miles there is a very nice KOA park  http://koa.com/campgrounds/carlsbad/ there is also a state park at Brantley lake with and RV park that is listed in on this site that is another 4-5 miles down the road on 285  http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/BrantleyLakeActivities.html  from that point you are only around 35 miles to the caverns.

He was definitely correct about El Paso its a crazy place to go through on I-10. And if you have never been through the Cloudcroft area its a pretty place to visit. If you decide to come this way let me know I live in this area and would be glad to help in any way.