Rio Grande Village (big Bend, TX)

Beautiful location and well managed as far as we could tell. The staff in the store could be a little more friendly but whatever. Showers in store cost a couple of dollars for 5 minutes - 4 of the five minutes the water is cold. I know its a remote area and having showers is a not an easy offer, but heating water should not be a big problem in this day and age. Overall we love Big Bend and we are grateful for Rio Grand Village. NPS should try to manage this location vs contracting it out (just a suggestion).

Nice campsites - campground hosts were superb! Easy hiking trails with wonderful views. Lots of wildlife to view.
Showers/bathrooms need updating, but I think they are planning that. Washing machines and dryers at the campground store, along with ice and propane. It was easy to go across to Boquillas Del Carmen, Mexico for great food and souvenirs and friendly people. Take your passport.

Nice campground, especially if you love dark skies at night. Clean bathrooms, utility sinks for dishes, plenty of potable water spigots. Wildlife abounds—saw a family of javelinas, and there was a coyote right outside the bathrooms one night. If you’re not a generator person, try to get a site in the no-generator areas. Honestly it would probably be more environmentally friendly if the CG had electric hookups, rather than all the random loud generators.

One of the best parks to visit.

We enjoyed our site and the views around us were amazing . The star gazing evening was well worth it - the instructor really knew his info and was so helpful

Great place. Wish you could control the noise levels of the insanely loud generators. They are over the top. People seem to use them to watch tv at night. They might as well stay home.

Positives: Private campsite as it is surrounded by small shrubs and trees, some with large thorns. Set back from road with parking for single car between campsite and road. Concrete picnic table with large storage locker next to table. Bathroom, with separate facility to dispose of wash water for dishes, is a relatively close walk, maybe a third of a block. The site prior, 31 ,appears to have a direct route to bathhouse through the back of the campsite. Site 33 did not. Adequate space for a larger tent. Tent sites across the road may be better to camp with tent but backs up to open space; coyote noted a couple of times on campsites other side of road, nose to ground smelling. ( Bring nonscented babywipes if you want to store in tent). As it is very quiet at this part of campground, any noise from neighbors is easily heard. It was quite cold, quiet, maybe everyone went to bed early. Majority in campground were camping in vehicles or trailers.

Big Bend was of course big plus. Staying in park gives advantage to hiking, birding, early in AM/PM, bird variety, scenery. Great ranger talk in evening at Rio Grande Village, despite cold and windy ! Good talk on geology/geography of park, dinosaurs of park, including Deinosuchus, a bit on early inhabitants, Native Americans.

No cell. For wifi I found the border crossing building at Boquillos had good wifi, accessible outside the building. Don't have to be going to Mexico to use but smallish parking lot. No wifi was available at Rio Gran Village store that I could find. Hopefully, border crossing will remain open.

Negatives: Many small rocks inherent throughout this site which one cannot 'remove'. Be sure to bring good pad. I had Exped plus placed a thicker exercise pad underneath it. ( Thicker than a yoga mat). I did not feel any rocks. Had a thick quilt for the inside of the floor tent to further cushion. It was in low 30's at night so had brought these primarily for warmth.

The campground was very close to Boquillas Canyon and the Hot Springs. We did both hikes and they were beautiful. We also enjoyed the nature walk from the campground. We did not cross the border but I heard good things about it. I wish we would have stayed at Chisos Basin as it was more centrally located but we were still able to explore the whole park. I highly recommend the Window Trail.

Though the campground was nice, there is not a lot in the area. We thought we’d go into Mexico for dinner but they stop that at 4:00. We did visit the hot springs though and that was fun.

Very good campsite