Best Tent Camping near Redford, TX

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.

We went out here for a four day primitive site stay in Javelin. If you love solitude this place is right up your alley. We chose Big Bend Ranch over the National park primarily for an adventure and the fact that they allow camp fires. It was a long drive out in the desert. The main road is well maintained. Once you hit the side roads to your campsite you need to pay attention to what vehicle they tell you, you need to get to the campsite. They aren’t fooling around😆we had two wheel drive high clearance and it is exactly that. One thing we didn’t realize was that the brush grows close into the road so if you go out to Javelin you will scratch your vehicle. But you are rewarded with the solitude and beauty of the area. In four days we saw no one. We heard wildlife (coyotes) but never saw anything. It had plenty of trails close by to explore if you want to stay put. They require your own waste disposal. The site includes tent sites (they are rocky), picnic table and a fire pit/grill. Just a beautiful awesome place that I hope to return to soon.

It’s called Coyote Crossing for a reason. Was woken up from the howling of coyotes ever few hours. Some were walking around our tent. The toilets are true old school outhouses that you climb up into but look something like what you’d see in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movie with skeletons of a bull hanging on the back. However it was neat exploring around the hills where you can find millions of years old shells and cool rocks. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous the next morning and you’re pretty far away from your neighbors.

We have recovered from our shake out trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park, Chorro Vista Camp Site. Yes we did a shake out in the most remote camp site, in the most remote State park in Texas. Texas Parks& Wildlife Dept calls this"the other side of No Where" and says bring TWO spare tires and they mean both. The 4x4 trail to get to the camp site was exhilarating, both the scenery and driving what they call maintained road. Want some real fun try the unmaintained 4X4 roads....we had a mountain goat tell us we were crazy for drive up there. If you care about your paint don't drive these roads, but if West Texas Pin Striping is a badge of honor this is for you. The Falcon Pro was awesome, if we would have had the old truck bed tent, it would have been in Mexico after the winds Friday night, as it was I was trying to figure out self rescue when the winds blew the truck over....but we made it. Then Saturday night the temps dropped to 15 degrees and us without a heater again did OK. We got some sleep Sunday night. The days were great some of the most rugged hiking ever...and the views, AMAZING. What a great experience, cant wait to get back out there.

We have recovered from our shake out trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park, Chorro Vista Camp Site. Yes we did a shake out in the most remote camp site, in the most remote State park in Texas. Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept calls this"the other side of No Where" and says bring TWO spare tires and they mean both. The 4x4 trail to get to the camp site was exhilarating, both the scenery and driving what they call maintained 4X4 road. Want some real fun try the unmaintained 4X4 roads....we had a mountain goat tell us we were crazy for drive up there. If you care about your paint don't drive these roads, but if West Texas Pin Striping is a badge of honor this is for you. The Falcon Pro was awesome, if we would have had the old truck bed tent, it would have been in Mexico after the winds Friday night, as it was I was trying to figure out self rescue when the winds blew the truck over....but we made it. Then Saturday night the temps dropped to 15 degrees and us without a heater again did OK. We got some sleep Sunday night. The days were great some of the most rugged hiking ever...and the views, AMAZING. What a great experience, cant wait to get back out there.

This breathtakingly beautiful backcountry campsite is surrounded by Texas desert and has incredible views of the Santa Elena Canyon (where the Rio Grande divides Texas and Mexico).

We camped there in April 2018 and loved every moment. It’s a great spot to pitch a tent if you are planning to do some paddling on the river, or if you just want to be out (WAY OUT) in the middle of nowhere. There are three sites available at this location but they are spread out. Bear/mountain lion boxes are also provided - although I can’t imagine a bear would be that far out into the desert.

You can climb a small hill behind the campsite and watch the prettiest sunset over the canyon that you’ve ever seen.

Make sure to take everything you need. There are no hookups, no water, toilets, etc... there is a small visitor station with limited hours (even pre-COVID) just a few miles away. But no gas, so make sure to come on a full tank.

Take a couple of days and enjoy the beautiful scenery and nice hiking trails nearby.

This is ONLY a four star review simply because the access roads are AWFUL! You might could reach this in a high clearance 2WD, but if a rain shower pops up, it could be a while before you find your way out. And it could be days before anyone comes that far out. Come prepared! Other than this, the site is an easy 5 stars!

Great place for tent or car/truck camping. Clean well laid out sites with tremendous views all around. There are 2 RV sites with electric and water but this primarily for tent/car/truck camping. There are additional walk-in sites as well. I spent 4 nights in RV spot with truck camper. Hosts couldn’t have been more friendly. Great tips on where to find local eating and gifts. Not far from Big Bend, so there’s that. All in all, had a very enjoyable time and will return.

Quiet and nice campground. Large grass area which is perfect for the tents. Location close to the Rio Grande and the Santa Elena Canyon. Convenient store half a mile away.

Be lulled to sleep to the gentle rustle of cottonwood trees. I tent sleep so I like a place where you can set up a tent without having a ton of rocks. They irrigate the camp so it is muddy at times and when that rare rain storm comes up the camp will flood. If you leave food out you will be visited by skunks, javelinas, raccoons and bears. During the summer it will be brutally hot during the day, but i have had the entire campground to myself for up to a week. Late summer this is one of the penultimate places on the planet to photograph the Milky Way. Since you are near to Santa Elena canyon you can drive up and get the iconic picture of the Milky Way stretched across it.

We loved it. No hookups, no generators. Just quiet. Zero cell service so don't even think about it. We camped there in the new year. Did a bunch of hiking and bird watching.

Not big rig friendly. Smaller trailers, tents and van life.

Great site tucked in-between foothills.  Nice sized space with picnic table and fire pit.  Plenty of room for multiple tents and additional vehicles.  Could bring small camper but one washout in road could prove challenging unless have short tongue and higher clearance.  Old windmill and tank make for nice scenery.  No bear box.  About 20-30 mnts from ranger station on dirt and bumpy roads.  Nice solitude and very peaceful!

Fresno Vista has a wonderful view! It gets a little windy at night and you have to park your tent pretty far away from the fire ring for flat ground. It's wonderful having a shelter over the picnic table. The drive to the site off the main road is truly 4x4 - we barely got away with being in a 2SW SUV. We stayed over NYE when a cold front swung by - it was brutal but we still loved it. You're so far away from your neighbor which provides quite a bit of solitude.

This is one of my favorite Texas campsites. If you love the desert and big Texas sunsets this is the place to camp. You will need a high clearance vehicle and experience camping in dispersed desert sites. Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring, otherwise you need to bring everything including water and a toilet. The ranger station is about 25 miles off the highway on a rough washboard road. Sections of the smaller roads which lead to campsites required 4x4 vehicles. Our Sprinter 4x4 has no problem making it to our site which was about 12 miles off the highway. The variety of desert cactuses was amazing. We visited in April and it was very hot in the day. So, you will need to time the visit carefully has the summer temps can exceed 100 most days. We also experienced a lot of bees in the spring from the flowers Ocotillo plants.

My friends and I camped here for 2 nights on site #1 to be able to visit Big Bend National Park (about a 45 minute drive away). It's a very rocky road to get there off the highway (follow the written directions from the owner, they're very helpful!), but there's plenty of space for multiple cards to pull up. The compost outhouse is perfect, and the views are amazing. Only mild downside is that it's def windy, so keep that in mind when thinking about campfires, cooking, and sleeping in a tent.

10/10 would go back.

Camping inside the canyon after canoeing up the river! The canoe trek can be difficult, especially with low water. Expect the canyon to be 5-10 degrees warmer than the temperature above the canyon in the park. If you camp on a sandbar make sure you are high enough that rising water doesn’t reach you tent. The night we camped the park ranger estimated the temperature inside the canyon was over 110. We sat in the water that night to cool off. In the middle of the night we heard javelinas splashing in the river.

This pin is actually across the road from where the Upper & Lower Madera campgrounds are. As the name suggests, one is on a plateau and one is on the ground/ river level. There is a clearly marked sign for Upper Madera, but the sign to turn for Lower Madera is simply a “river access” sign. The Lower Madera sign is visible only once you turn onto the road.

I stayed for a few nights at Lower Madera because it’s the closest thing I could find to Big Bend National Park, which is still about an hour drive away. Luckily the drive up and down River Road is absolutely stunning!

I stayed in site 10, which was a bit set back from the road and could have easily fit another tent or two. I also prepaid/ reserved my stay through the Texas SP website for $12 a night.

Lower Madera is fairly desolate, there were only three other campers that I spotted throughout my two nights there. The highway was not heavily trafficked to begin with, but the plateau of Upper Madera blocks any sound that might come through. The river gurgling in the short distance is nice. This is a GREAT place for stargazing as this and the surrounding area is a designated dark sky.

Speaking of the Rio Grande, most of the shoreline is covered in brush, with an opening for boat access. From what I could tell, this boat access ramp is really the only place you can truly get to the river’s edge at the campground.

Wildlife spotting: skunks and javelinas. You can hear the coyotes yipping and howling in the middle of the night or early in the morning, but I didn’t actually see any. The skunk and javelina both went on their way when I shined my flashlight on them.

There is absolutely ZERO cell service. You may be able to pick up some phone calling service or even 3G data around Lajitas, but LTE is nonexistent out there. There is WiFi at the visitor centers within the national park.

The picnic table is metal, easy for cleaning! The fire ring was in great shape too, but there was a burn ban in effect when I came through a few days ago. There is a lot of brush to separate the campsites, but not really much for shade trees.

I would stay here again, but no longer than two nights, with a tight activity plan in place.

Rancherias Spring is a dispersed primitive campsite on the Rancherias Loop Trail. 

The main attraction of this site is the unique opportunity to walk through a cottonwood forest grove in the high mountain desert. There is not much water in this region, but there is apparently sufficient water to sustain a grove of trees. You also have the opportunity to cross over a high desert mesa. 

There are no facilities nor amenities at this campsite. Leave No Trace principles should apply. Purchase gas and supplies in Fort Stockton, Alpine or Terlingua before entering the park because there are no supplies within the park. Prior to visiting this site it is required that you check in to the Barton Warnock Visitor Center from 8am to 4pm and secure a backcountry permit. Sites must be at least 1/4 mile from any other existing campsite; at least 300 feet from water sources and prehistoric or historic cultural sites; at least 3/4 mile from trailheads or roads. 

At the trailhead and once you enter the trail, there is no cell phone signal. This is a remote area of the park which has few visitors, so take appropriate safety precautions for self-rescue if needed. 

This site is about 7 miles from the West trailhead entrance of the Rancherias Loop Trail. The spring itself was just a trickle when we visited. We were able to collect and filter water. Some in our group camped in the river wash. Others and I elected to camp up the hill on the rock surface. The surface on the hill was almost all rock, so instead of tent spikes I used large rocks to secure down my tent. 

The main attraction of this site is the unique opportunity to walk through a cottonwood forest grove in the high mountain desert. There is not much water in this region, but there is apparently sufficient water to sustain a grove of trees. You also have the opportunity to cross over a high desert mesa.

We were here 2/20/21 to 2/26/21. Weather was great, mid 70's during the day, 40 to 50 at night. 

Horrible roads, takes forever to get anywhere! We loved the Isolation, saw very few people unless we went into the Ranger Station. Bathrooms and showers very clean, although never used showers. Bring tons of water! Can get more at Ranger station and also decent WIFI there. Free Ice is a huge bonus!

Had Texas Longhorns in camp. We have a Truck Camper on a Silverado 3500 and originally reserved Yedra 1. We were talked out of that site by a ranger and ended up in Tascate 1 instead which was just fine. We tried driving into Yedra later in our stay and turned around, so glad we didn't end up there.

Trails are plentiful and fantastic. The scenery fantastic. Be sure to bring everything you need food and alcohol wise!

Also, if you have the Texas state park pass, you don't pay the daily fees and you get discounted camping on at least one night plus discounts on gift store items. Was well worth it

Small enough to not be noisy, large enough to be accommodating. Central to multiple trails. Staff was friendly and knowlegable. Shade trees at many sites, important even in November in Texas. Showers and restrooms available. Highly recommend!