Not all spots are created equal. Some don’t have space for even a medium tent. This is high desert camping. High winds, so staking a tent is difficult. But this IS the place to stay.

LOTS of tree coverage. Can hang a hammock. Sites are big and not on top of each other. Central to everything on the south rim. And friendly to people on big trips that are wandering.. they always seem to have a site for you, the rangers are exceptional. And don’t feed the fat squirrel at the visitor center… he lies, he can find his own food.

Every site is big. Clean. Store is reasonable. Things for kids to do. Bring bug spray!!

Ground is just gravel so you can not stake a tent. It’s… not a camping site it’s like a parking lot. Not kidding. Watch my video. Easy to get in. Had to block the entrance with my truck as people just pull in all night and it was just me and my daughter. Wind never stops. Bear box filled with garbage- unusable. 5 miles away from anything.

Even the primitive sites are close to the bathrooms! Short walk away. Sites are BIG. FREE showers!!! Bathrooms are super clean.

You need a 4x4 to get in here or else it’ll take 40+ min just to get to site 1. Low clearance vehicles will not make it anymore. Several washouts make the road very rough. Ranger knew we were two women and also knew Mexicans cross in horseback.. why we were given this site is beyond me. You MUST lock up your valuables. Can NOT stake tents- ground is loose gravel for an inch then all rock. Even with rocks in tent wind is so strong it started to move. Pretty site but not worth it. Also even though you are less then a 1/2 click from the Rio Grande, you can not see it from any of the sites.

We back country camped for 3 days waiting for this ONE NIGHT in the mountains at Big Bend. Site 32 has ZERO space for a tent. Was told by a park ranger to find the ‘camp hosts’ Dan and Mary. Yeah … she was so snotty and downright MEAN.. that we left. Just left. We were DONE. She said with AS MUCH attitude as possible ‘what do you mean??? Did you check the backside of the site?’ Stomped away to the site and looked at it and then followed up with ‘well HOW BIG IS YOUR TENT??’ Lady… 1. There IS no back side to the site and now to recover face you’re acting like WE are the problem and 2. BIGGER THAN THE 4x4 SPOT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GRILL!!! She RUINED our big bend trip. Note how we had to move the picnic table up on rocks in the photo. Also we couldn’t stake our tent due to the hard gravel… so we left. No refund. Awesome.

The lake as of October 2021 is so dried up you can not see it from the tent sites. But everything is clean. Fire ants EVERYWHERE. We just pitched a tent by the pavilion where we found the least ants.