What to Expect Camping in Big Bend’s Chisos Basin Campground
This year I visited Big Bend National Park for the first time, dipping south into Texas for a long drive into the Chihuahuan Desert. As the most remote stop on my 2022 cross country road trip, my travel partner Brockie and I were skeptical that Big Bend would be worth the drive. But it turned out to be full of beautiful viewpoints and tough hikes that kept us busy!
While in Big Bend, we stayed at the Chisos Basin campground, which is the most popular Big Bend campground. Big Bend does have a few other campgrounds: the Rio Grande Village campground, the Rio Grande Village RV park, and the Cottonwood campground. There are also many primitive campsites available for backcountry camping.
For Brockie and I, staying in the Chisos Basin campground was definitely the best option, because of its central location in Big Bend National Park. The Chisos Basin is what many would consider to be the heart of Big Bend, nestled in a large caldera in the Chisos Mountains. The basin contains some of Big Bend’s most popular trails and tallest peaks, such as Emory Peak. Although the landscape was rather barren, camping within the basin offered a stunning view from our campsite, with volcanic rocks rising on all sides!
Sunset view of the mountains in the Chisos Basin
Although camping in the Chisos Basin is beautiful, the remoteness of Big Bend takes some getting used to! Here are a few things you should know before reserving your site at the Chisos Basin Campground.
1. Arriving at the Chisos Basin campground
First, fuel up and go grocery shopping! You can stop at either Alpine or Marathon on Hwy 90 before driving south to Big Bend. Fill up your tank and make sure you have enough groceries to last through your stay at Big Bend. You are going to want to bring a large cooler so you can pack plenty of ice around your groceries. Once you are all stocked up, you can take either Hwy 118 or 385 south to the National Park. Hwy 118 is a prettier drive in my opinion, but you are going to be driving through desert either way.
Once you get into Big Bend National Park, it is still half an hour to the Chisos Basin if you are coming from Hwy 118, and longer if you are coming from 385. If you aren’t used to driving steep, windy roads, then the road to Chisos Basin might raise your heart rate a little. On the other hand, if steep and curvy roads are your thing, then you are going to love the road to the Chisos Basin campground!
I don’t recommend taking a large trailer or RV to the Chisos Basin campground for two reasons. First, the steep switchbacks are difficult for a long trailer or RV to navigate. Second, most of the campsites at the Chisos Basin campground are too small to accommodate a large RV.
2. Setting up your campsite
The Chisos Basin campground doesn’t offer hookups, so if you are RV camping, you will have to settle for no electricity and no running water. Just a word of caution: your RV will probably get very hot!
While most people who stay in the Chisos Basin tent camp, setting up a tent has its own problems. We quickly found that the ground is very hard and rocky, making it very difficult to stake down our tent. There also isn’t any vegetation big enough to tie your tent to.
When it comes to setting out your food, just make sure that you keep food put up in your vehicle or bear boxes. The Chisos Basin Campground provides bear boxes for each campsite, so you can store your cooler, trash, dry groceries, and other food items there. To make storing food easier, I suggest keeping one box with groceries and one box with kitchen supplies.
3. Windproofing your site
Dealing with wind is something that never even crossed my mind when making my reservations for Chisos Basin. Now, I can’t think of the Chisos Basin campground without thinking of the crazy wind gusts! Brockie and I quickly learned that some pretty strong wind comes tunneling up through slits in the caldera. Shortly after staking and tying down our tent, we noticed that it was bending quite a bit in the wind. We found some large rocks lying around the campsite, and set them in the corners inside the tent to help weigh it down. Later, the campground host explained that the rocks are left there intentionally for that purpose.
The wind got worse at night. Even with our tent staked down, tied down, and weighted with rocks, some of the wind gusts shifted the whole tent. Plus, it was too noisy to sleep with the whole tent billowing every other minute. Brockie and I got up a little after midnight and took the tent down in the dark, just to make sure the tent poles wouldn’t snap in the strong wind. Then we put our air mattress back in the minivan and reverted back to minivan camping like we had been doing before arriving at Big Bend.
My advice? Pack a small low-to-the-ground tent. Most of the campers in the Chisos Basin were in small two-person tents, which seemed to sit low enough to avoid the worst of the wind. To the contrary, Brockie and I were sleeping (or trying to sleep anyway) in a tall eight-person tent.
Otherwise, for two people I would suggest sleeping in a minivan or truck. As long as you have an air mattress and warm bedding, sleeping in the back of your vehicle is very convenient and comfortable, and your vehicle won’t go flying off in the wind.
Besides making sure your tent is secure, make sure none of your other belongings will get picked up by the wind. If it’s windy, make sure chip bags, paper eatery, boxes, or other lightweight items are put up in the bear box or the vehicle.
4. Campground Amenities
For being out in the middle of the desert, I was surprised to find the Chisos Basin Campground provides ample running water and flush toilets. (No showers though!) There are several water spigots placed throughout the campground, so finding a spigot near your campsite isn’t difficult. I suggest bringing several gallon jugs with you so you can fill them with water and keep water at your campsite.
Since Big Bend is in the desert, there is almost no natural shade in the Chisos Basin. The few trees sprinkled throughout the campground are old twisted pines that are too short and scrawny to provide shade. However, each campsite has a small shelter that covers the picnic table. The cover is enough to provide some shade throughout the entire day, no matter the sun angle.
5. Hiking in the Chisos Basin
The Window
If you are looking to get some hiking in, you don’t have to go far! The Chisos Basin campground is close to some of Big Bend’s most popular hikes. Start with The Window hike, which is about 5.2 miles in and out and is one of the easiest trails in Big Bend. It starts right from the campground and travels down through a canyon to an opening in the caldera wall. The opening offers a pretty spectacular view!
For some longer and more strenuous hikes, start at the Chisos Basin Lodge, which is only about a mile from the campground. From the lodge, you can hike up to Emory Peak, the highest peak in the area. You can also hike the Basin Loop Trail, the Pinnacles Trail, or some of the other trails that wind through the basin.
My favorite hike that I did at Big Bend was the Lost Mine Trail, less than two miles down the road from the Chisos Basin campground. The Lost Mine Trail is only about 5 miles in and out, and has some beautiful views of the Chisos Mountains.
The top of the Lost Mine Trail
If you are visiting Big Bend in the summer, hiking takes some careful planning, because you don’t want to get stuck out on the trails in hundred-degree heat! You can hike from sunrise to about 11 in the morning, or from about 6 to sunset in the evening. I’m not a morning person, so most of the hiking Brockie and I did in Big Bend was in the evening. In hindsight, I wish we hadn’t. Even though we waited until around 6 to begin, it was still pretty hot until shortly before sunset. We often found ourselves blinded by the setting sun, simply because many of the best views in the Chisos Basin face west.
On our last day in Big Bend, Brockie and I did a morning hike, and I’m so glad we did! If you hike in the morning you have a larger time window (about 5 hours), and you have much better views without the sun shining straight in your eyes.
No matter what time you choose to go hiking in Big Bend, bring plenty of water, use lots of sunscreen, wear good hiking shoes, and get prepared for some steep climbs. Inside the Chisos Basin, you either hike up or hike down. No matter what trail you choose, you will be hiking some pretty big elevation changes.
5. Proximity to services
Although Big Bend National Park is pretty remote, it’s not completely empty of services. There is a small gas station near the Panther Junction Visitor Center, about fifteen minutes from the Chisos Basin campground. Next to the Chisos Basin Lodge is a campground store that provides ice, cold drinks, snacks, and anything else you might need to pick up while camping. So if you’re in the middle of the desert and you realize you forgot something, don’t worry. Chances are that between the gas station and the Chisos Basin store, you’ll be covered.
Outside of Big Bend National Park, the nearest town is Terlingua, with a whopping population size of 110. Terlingua isn’t much, but it’s only 45 minutes from the Chisos Basin campground, which is far closer than anything else. You can stop by the Terlingua gas station and general store if you need to grab a few items last-minute.
It may take some getting used to, being so far from ‘civilization.’ But Big Bend offers a break from the busyness of our daily lives. Out in the desert, you won’t have phone service, and you won’t be able to lean on all the commodities that are usually easily accessible. You get the chance to enjoy the peaceful expanse of the wilderness. So get out, do some hiking, and enjoy your stay in the Chisos Basin.
For more National Park tips, go to my post on Capitol Reef National Park.
