Rio Grande Village (Big Bend, TX)

The park is beautiful. My campsite was near an arroyo, and when it started raining, I was nervous about staying, so did not spend the night. I left at dusk, and saw lots of wildlife on my way out of the park.

I stayed here in late September. The camp host was friendly, as was the ranger who stopped by. I enjoyed the walk down to the Rio Grande river, though you have to be observant because some of the trail is not well marked. This campground was mostly empty. Unlike my stay at Chisos Basin (also in BBNP) the prior night, which was lovely, this was honestly a miserable night. The mosquitos were thick and it was extremely hot and humid. I was not in a camper or RV with air conditioning, so after sweating and swatting for a few hours, I finally gave up. I packed up and left about 2 AM to continue my road trip. If you camp here, winter might be a better time.

The park was nice with easy hiking trails. The camp store had a variety of necessities and fuel, diesel as well, which was nice because the nearest store or fuel is 20+ miles away.

Beautiful area!!!

Best national park I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to 32 parks and monuments! Campground was great. Very empty in August, as it’s very very hot but the experience was worth it. Great having the camp store with WiFi just a short drive (walking distance as well) from the campground.

I stayed in Rio Grande Village. It was peaceful and quiet. The park is beautiful!

We had stayed for four nights in one spot, but I was not able to get all five nights that I wanted in the same spot so I grabbed this site (74) for a one night stay at the end of our trip. This one is located very close to the camp host, she was amazing and very helpful.
With our solar panels and our 600 amp hours of batteries, we were able to operate our air conditioner and lights for the entire five nights that we were at Big Bend.
We brought our E bikes and rode around quite a bit; we took several hikes, and we ended up going down to the Rio Grande walk area that’s very accessible from the campground and wandering around there several times. The entire area is absolutely gorgeous.
The campsites are sort of close together, but overall it’s a very peaceful and quiet area. We checked out the CG at Chisos Basin and the sites there were even closer together. If we return we may try to stay at Cottonwood- those sites were a little farther apart. One evening there was a ranger talk at the nearby Rio Grande Village amphitheater, and we attended that and it was rather interesting, and not very well attended.
We stopped by the Ranger station a few times for information and to check emails with their Wi-Fi.
We did some back-road driving and went to Ernst Tinaja, which was an excellent hike (probably our favorite), and we also drove Ross Maxwell all the way to Santa Elena and walked in the river.
One day we crossed the border (make sure to bring your passport) and had lunch. We walked to the village and then rode donkeys back, just for fun.
There are fuel stations in the park- and we needed gas- we drove a lot while there. The paved roads were all in good shape. The dirt roads were sometimes a bit rough.

Lovely campground and good facilities. We were there in August and the only ones in the campground. Some donkey's wandered into our camp which was fun. Close to some trailheads that were easy to do with a 4 year old. At night it was very dark to view the night sky, though the light from the bathroom was a bit brighter than expected. I would suggest the campground install red lights or set the lights on a timer/motion sensor.

The campsite is well maintained and the bathrooms are clean! I will say that if you don’t like the heat this is not the best choice of sites in Big Bend (for hotter seasons at least). The Chisos Basin campground was about 10 degrees cooler during our stay in mid August. If you plan on staying in a tent Chisos was much more comfortable and had beautiful views! If you don’t mind the heat, the Rio Grande village was peaceful and gave good space between sites. There’s also a short trail that allows you to see the river and the views across the border, very cool spot! If you’d like some super cool souvenirs take some cash down the nature trail. A local artist leaves some pretty awesome stuff for sale right beyond the boardwalk.

Had a wonderful time. Scenery is amazing. Although it was quite difficult to sleep in my tent at 100 degrees, the proximity of available showers at the store was a refreshing welcome. I love the place.

It’s summer, so most of the sites are closed. I was there with maybe 2-3 other groups over the 3 nights I was there. The general store was open, and one of the visitors’ centers was open nearby.
I stayed at site 19 which was right next to the nature trailhead. All the other sites next to it were closed so it was very quiet- however- the javelinas, donkeys with loud bells and horses like to use this particular site as a cut through to the rest of the campground and they could be pretty loud. They didn’t come to my tent and my cooler was safely stored so no issues there but they certainly didn’t respect quiet hours.