Big bend - RV-Dreams Community Forum

adeline and ed · RV-Dreams Family Member

Big bend

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

I haven't been to Big Bend so not sure what to tell you there.

BUT, you should stop and visit me in Mission after Rockport and before Big Bend!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

The only time we've been in Big Bend was when we were still tent campers. We camped in the Cottonwood campground on the Rio Grande River, loved watching the wild horses, etc. Plenty of sites there that had big rigs. Originally we wanted to stay at the campground at the higher elevation (I forget the name of it). We were there over Easter and they got a surprise snowstorm one night and evidently they had a black bear visitor as well. We were kind of glad we ended up in the Cottonwood campground after hearing those stories while we were still tent camping. However, it is a big park and while we were only there for 5 days, we felt like we spent a lot of time in the car driving to different areas of the park. I'd certainly suggest moving at least once unless you don't mind a lot of driving. If you're staying in the National Park, check their website, we've found that many National, state and county parks have time limits on how long you can stay in any one spot and in peak season how many nights total you can stay in the park. I would think March is right in the middle of peak season in Big Bend, based on when the cactus bloom.

Workinrvers · RV-Dreams Family Member

we have never been either but here is a link to a journal entry Howard did after their stay there in 2007 that seems to answer some of your questions.

http://rv-dreams.typepad.com/rvdreams_journal/2007/05/big_bend_summar.html

Phil

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We spent a few days there in November 2006 and loved it. http://www.sacnoth.com/2006/BigBend/BigBend.htm is our journal/blog about it. We stayed in the park and dry camped at Rio Grande Village. It is a very large park and we saw both cool and hot weather in our 4 nights of camping.

During Spring Break, which includes late March, you will get college students in Big Bend. These are not the wild and drunk ones that go to the beach, these are the ones who want to hike everywhere.

Groceries, etc., are expensive in the park and close by. Plan some weekly shopping trips to Alpine or Marathon.

Cell phone service is weak or non-existent in much of the park.

I have met no one who has much good to say about the campgrounds in Terlinqua, except they wanted hookups and got those. Some friends recommend http://stillwellstore.com/ for camping.

bigredoes · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have stayed at both Stillwell Store and in Terlingua...neither is much to write home about, however, I did not want to take the chance of driving all the way into the park to find no place to stay....so we stayed on the northside (Stillwell) and the westside (Terlingua) for a few days each and then drove into the park to explore.

Raytronx · RV-Dreams Family Member

Here is our trip report from a spring visit in 2011. We stayed a week at Rio Grande Village campground and then moved just outside the other end of the park in Terlingua. Worked out well. While in Terlingua it was a short drive down to Big Bend Ranch State park which was beautiful too. Expect to do a fair amount of driving to see the everything and try to get out an hike a bit, gorgeous country!

I hear the crossing to the little border of Boquitas town is back open, it's right beside Rio Grande Village. Was too bad it was closed when we visited.

Cheers Ray

soos · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've been there several times- its one of my favorite places. The index on my blog page will link to all my Big Bend posts. ipad won't let me insert a link here.
Anyway, we always stay at Big Bend Resort, but don't be fooled by the word Resort. Big Bend is a desert and so is the RV park but its full hookup, has wifi, and cell reception.
There is an RV park in the park itself so you could stay there, or at Stillwell Ranch for two weeks, then Study Butte/ Terlingua for 2 weeks. I think Study Butte is closer to the Chisos Basin and most of the places of interest in the park than the nationalpark campground, plus, Terlingua has at least one NICE restaurant (starlight theatre) with live music, and one funky, fun bar, called La Kiva.
Lajitas Resort IS more of a resort- it even has a pool, but its another 30 minutes from the park entrance so its never been worth it to us.
They are not kidding about groceries. The nearest full grocery (fresh produce) is in Alpine, so stock up!

Sue

Howard · Host

We loved Big Bend as well, but we weren't set up for boondocking when we were there and stayed in Terlingua. The park is so big, it's a lot of driving to explore it. We didn't have our Jeep then either, and there are some nice backroads that we missed.

There are three campgrounds in the park: Rio Grande Village on the east side (100 dry camping sites, and 25 full hook-up sites in a parking lot); Cottonwood on the west side (24 dry camping sites, no dump station); and Chisos Basin in the middle (60 dry camping sites, but limited to motorhomes under 25 feet and trailers 20 feet and under). Chisos Basin is where many of the hiking trails begin, so it's a shame there isn't parking there for larger RVs. We decided to tent camp in Chisos Basin and do some hiking, but got stormed out. So we ended up doing shorter hikes after making the long drive in to the Basin.

Doing it all over again, we would probably stay a few days in Rio Grand Village and a few days in Cottonwood with perhaps a couple of days in Terlingua outside the west entrance for hook-ups and to check out the town (although the RV parks there aren't attractive at all). We might then stay at the Lajitas Maverick Ranch a few days. As mentioned, Lajitas is a long way from Big Bend National Park, but it would be a good place to relax and visit Big Bend Ranch State Park - the largest state park in Texas and worth a visit. Even a day trip from Terlingua to Lajitas is worth the drive - nice scenery along the river.

In Big Bend, we enjoyed Santa Elena Canyon (west side) and Boquillas Canyon (east side) as well as the Chisos Basin (higher elevation and beautiful, even the six-mile drive in is gorgeous), but there is only one short, easy trail there (all others are longer and moderate to strenuous). We also hiked to a hidden waterfall (Cattail Falls) on the west side that isn't on the trail maps, but ask at a ranger station and they can direct you. There are some delicate orchids back there and they try to keep traffic down. You might also like soaking in the hot springs on the Hot Springs Historical Trail.

There are over 100 miles of paved roads in the park. From Terlingua it was 35 miles to Castolon/Cottonwood, 30 miles to Chisos Basin, and 50-something miles to Rio Grande Village. So, every day we were driving 60 to 100 miles roundtrip to explore. That's why we'd likely change campgrounds, but if you need hook-ups, your options are very limited.

Enjoy!