We love camping in our National Parks and enjoyed our stay at Chisos Basin in Big Bend, with a couple of caveats. Because of the water shortage, there were no toilets or sinks (other than a utility). The port-a-potties filled up very quickly and were often out of toilet paper and fairly messy. The lack of any sink for washing faces, etc. was difficult in such a dry, dusty climate. And the camp store was more limited than other other NP experiences. They are about to begin a big remodel of the area, which I believe will address many of these challenges (including better water capture to respond to the drought), and I'm excited to see what Chisos Basin will look like on the other side of some of those repairs/renovations.
The bear boxes at these camp sites are fantastic, and made it very easy to clean up the campsite and protect any food.
Most of the sites are quite small and very close together; there's not much privacy at this campground. Our site (29, loop 2) had a good layout and a little more privacy than most.
Some sites have ABSOLUTELY NO shade, which I imagine would be quite difficult in the summer months! The ones that do have shade structures (such as ours) are well suited to bringing a hammock-- I wish we had brought ours.
This campsite can't be beat for convenience to the best hikes: Lost Mine, Windows, and Emory Peak were all fantastic and easily accessed.
We did find that recent funding cuts meant we saw far fewer park rangers than we typically do on NP visits, and the visitor center hours were very limited :-( A sad state of affairs. But the ones that we did encounter were fantastic, as always. Rangers are what make America's Best Idea even better!
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