This park is a great escape to disconnect, view the DARK SKY and witness Mexican free-tailed bat emergence! Park campground is 25 miles after the turn off of US90. We stayed Friday and Saturday nights in mid-March. Few bats emerged during our stay; much better emergence in April as experienced in previous visits to Stuart Cave.
Pros:
• Excellent DARK SKY campground
• Stuart Cave bat emergence nightly from a very nice viewing deck
• Small park
• Extremely quiet park during March Spring Break
• Good campsite privacy due to good brush coverage
• Most sites had a nice distance from neighbor sites
• Clean campsite
• Picnic table in good condition, especially eating surface
• Our site had aluminum picnic table on a concrete slab under a metal shelter; not all sites had metal shelter
• Clean restroom/shower facility
• Campsite hook-ups in good condition.
• Level gravel campsite.
• Pedestal BBQ grill, fire pit with grilling grate, double hook lantern pole and aluminum picnic table at each site.
• Park roadways in good condition.
• Park Ranger patrolled campground numerous times throughout day/evening
Cons:
• No AT&T signal; no park WIFI, so completely without phone service and no public phone available for emergerncies. Had to drive outside of Park about 3 miles for AT&T signal.
• County burn ban prohibited wood campfires and ban posted on Park’s website. Park Ranger stopped by our campsite to tell us to put out our campfire, but we showed him it was a propane firebowl.
• Limited shade in campsites
• Must pack out all personally generated trash. Absolutely NO dumpsters; no garbage cans in park
• No campground host
•. No entrance gate locked at night
• One and only restroom used by entire Park, so campers and day users. Women’s restroom had 2 toilets, 2 sinks and one shower stall
• Women’s restroom lacked consistent supply of TP and wall dispenser soap• Wildlife sightings limited to squirrels and armadillos
• No park store, so come prepared with all necessary supplies as Brackettville is closest small town which is 25 miles away with only a grocery store and couple fuel stations. Ulvade and Del Rio have the typical box stores.
