Best RV Parks & Resorts near Big Bend National Park

The skies at night are big and bright....deep in the heart of Texas! This is a beautiful - completely off the beaten path - well lots of amenities campground. We were there over Memorial Weekend, expecting it to be crowded, it was not. They have 101 camping spots for RV's - plenty of room to spread out. Big spaces can accommodate any size rig. We were pleasantly surprised with the lounge and swimming area, well kept, clean, everything you could need. If you need groceries, bring them with you, there is a small local store that caters high end good products, but not a lot of them. One local restaurant, one local bar, all part of the resort - if you want to golf, horseback ride, hike, all is available. The nearest anything though is Terlingua (which isn't much.)
What is great about the park is that it is the best available camping near Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is huge and beautiful, lots of water, hot springs, 4 wheel drive trails - it's a park that has a lot of history too. Go there, and go to the Big Bend State Park too - lots of local color.

As the saying goes, When in Rome ... staying at BJs RV park was like an immersion experience to living in Terlingua. You feel the history and past of days gone by, with the ghost town of Terlingua and the junk yard behind the RV camping area. Both the town and the junk yard take on a mysterious magical quality in the light at the end of the day. Lots to learn about the history of the place and one great way to learn is to talk with the locals, both in the town and those living in the RV park (temporarily or long term-in addition to those passing through like us). Besides the history of the place, you also learn about the hopes and dreams of the locals - such as the artist cooperative gallery, the RV park manager who hopes to open a cafe / outdoor music spot, and so forth.

The RV sites are all clean and level with electricity, water etc. There’s also a shower house. One note: the wifi doesn’t reach the tent sites (but works fine in RV sites) so we let a young woman traveling alone move her car from her tent site to park overnight on our site so she could use the wifi and check in with her loved ones. We enjoyed sharing some food and conversation with her, as well as meeting other campers and residents.

Terlingua ghost town itself is fun to explore. Many visitors flock to the Starlight Theater (which used to have no roof other than the stars in the sky above). The line to get in is hours long (apparently great menu), but we relished the Frito Pie at the cafe on the side (no wait for that). The art gallery is also worth the visit, and it’s fun to just walk around the ghost town. Of course it’s also a great location for visiting Big Bend NP. We especially loved hiking into Santa Elena Canyon - spectacular.

Terlingua and BJs RV park are hopeful places, with lots of history in a beautiful remote setting that feels like a crossroads in time and place. Really enjoyed it. Would be happy to return.

OK the campground is a parking lot and I mean a parking lot. Each spot is 2 parking spots. It is all asphalt. No Cell Phone, No Internet, no TV nothing. But was the best place we have been to. If you want full hook ups for camping it is the only one in Big Bend National Park. they only have 25 sites all back in. Pay for showers if you don't have your own. But catch the sunrise and sunsets. Hike to Boquillas Canyon, the hot springs down the river or all over Rio Grande Village. Drive to all of Big Bend and spend days hiking Mountains, Deserts, River, Canyons. The most beautiful area in the World at least to me.

Just outside the park, in Big Bend terms, lies the town of Study Butte. There you can find most of the things you might have forgotten, including some available camping in a traditional RV park.  Not usually our style, but it was late and we had just had a huge day of bikepacking and kayaking in the park, so were ready to stop for the night and sleep.

If your rig just won’t handle the backcountry roads, or size limitations of the National Park, this is a good option for full hook-ups. We parked in the “dry camping” area, which was really just an open area on their lot near the dumpsters, but it suited our needs for the night at $26 – supply and demand! 

The bathrooms were clean and the showers hot, but did require $2 in quarters for 6 minutes. I get it, water is gold out in the western deserts, and the season for making money in this part of the world is probably short. Everything here is going to cost a little bit extra because of the challenging location. 

We enjoyed a takeout pizza from Long Draw Pizza, which was huge and super delicious. After three nights in a backcountry setting we really enjoyed splashing out. The café which is connected to the RV park is a great choice for breakfast, we recommend the burritos– very delicious but definitely add the potatoes!

We stayed here for four days over thanksgiving and have nothing bad to say about this place whatsoever. Friendly staff. Views from inside the park are great as well. There’s a general store right outside if you need or forgot anything and only about a 20 min drive to Big Bend entrance. Also there are a lot of activities we didn’t try right inside the resort just because of everything going on with COViD but next time we’ll try for sure. Also if you head right out of the RV park entrance, you’ll soon enter Big Bend Ranch State park within minutes and it’s almost just as impressive as big bend with some of the views and trails you can access from it. Closed Canyon trail is a must see as well as the hoodoos trail. Also they do have full hook ups, and 30AMP and 50 AMP.

Terlingua's only 3rd generation local owner and operator buisness. Located at the base of the Terlingua Ghost Town your within walking distance of everything in the historic Terlingua ghost town including 4 restaurant's 3 bar's and live music nightly plus there also directly between the Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend Ranch State Park. It's a rustic yet authentic Terlingua experience if you want an adventure this is a good place set up camp. The owner is friendly, informative, and helpful Elena is a phone call away. To top it off Jomommas RV Park has received recognition from the McDonald's observatory and eartsky.com for there dark sky and star viewing friendly lighting so be ready to definitely enjoy some of the best night sky's in North America not to mention some pretty amazing sunset's. It's not like the larger RV Parks in the area you can really get a feel for real desert living, with fewer people and rustic landscape.

We stayed at Road Runner RV Park in February of 2021 in the middle of the snowpocalypse that hit Texas in February of 2021. Allison and Chris, the owners, are great people that went around and checked to make sure that everyone had fresh water as the temps dipped into the single digits and they had to turn off the water lines. Chris and Allison went around in their truck with a fresh water container and a pump and filled every RV up. They even made sure to catch us as we got back from dinner at dusk that evening. 

They just opened this park on Christmas Eve of 2020, and they were yet to get their wifi hookup, but you can tell they are vested in providing a great park and a great service. The RV park is ideally located in the Study Butte area with great access to Big Bend national Park, Terlingua Ghost Town, and Big Bend Ranch State Park. Entrances to each Park is within 10 minutes. They also have very convenient access to the Cottonwood Grocery, the Alon gas station, and Black Jack’s crossing. 

This is definitely a destination area, and we intend to make it back. The sites are all gravel, as it is the Chihuahuan desert. So it will be a little dusty, but that is part of the natural beauty of the area. DB’s rustic barbecue is right across the road and Starlight theatre, and Terlingua ghost town is about 5 miles to the west.