Rio Grande Village, Big Bend National Park, Texas

Big Bend National Park in Texas has many backcountry campsites, and three campgrounds that accommodate RVs: Chisos Basin, Cottonwood, and Rio Grande Village.

Entering Big Bend National Park in Texas.

Chisos Basin requires a drive up a steep and winding road, and Cottonwood is in a comparitively more remote part of the park--both reasons we chose to camp at Rio Grande Village during our stay at Big Bend.

There are two sides to Rio Grande Village (RGV): The Campground managed by the National Park Service and the RV Park which is managed by Aramark. The Campground has 93 sites suitable for tents and RVs with trees providing a bit of shade, and no hookups. There are spigots with potable water throughout and by the dump station.

Some sites have concrete shelters, and here are generator and non-generator sites. There are several restrooms located throughout the campground, each with a cold water dish washing station. When we camped here, I'm sorry to say that the restrooms were distressingly smelly. Every one of them. They looked like they were cleaned, but there must have been an issue with the sewage system for the whole park because it was just awful.

The RV Park has full hookups, but before you get too excited about that, the camping there is like camping in a parking lot. The 25 sites are very close together with a little grassy area at the edges.

If you require electricity (for medical or other reasons), this would fit the bill. Campers here have access to a restroom and showers (equally smelly) at the Camp Store.

The Camp Store at RGV is well equipped with gasoline, food, snacks, souvenirs, wine and beer.

Tank Management

With no hookups at our site, we had to be mindful of our tank usage. We have a Scepter 5-gallon water container to refill our fresh tank and portable waste tank for gray water. Several times during our stay, Vic added fresh water to our tanks using the Scepter and emptied the gray water into the portable tank and dumped at the dump station. With this system, we were able to comfortably take our showers in the camper rather than pay at the Camp Store. Our black tank's capacity was sufficient for our six-night stay.

Campground Tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi9YrpEUIhg

Campground Details

• Campground Name: Rio Grande Village, Big Bend National Park, Big Bend, Texas

• Number of sites: 93 on

• Hookups: None

• Connectivity:  None. We used our Starlink Mini for phone and internet. The camp store has public Wifi.

• Bathrooms/Showers: There are several small buildings containing gendered toilets. Pay showers are available at the Camp Store.

• Campground amenities: Camp store, pay showers, laundry, dump station.

• Reservations: Reservations for the NPS managed sites are made through Recreation.gov. For the RV Park, visit https://www.chisosmountainslodge.com.

• Our Campground rating: 3 out of 5. This rating reflects the issue with the smelly bathrooms and showers.

Final Thoughts

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting Big Bend National Park and we hope to someday return. The Campground at Rio Grande Village is less than ideal, but it's still worth it to stay there to be in the park, close to amenities.

As of this writing, the campground (and the lodge) at Chisos Basin will close in May 2026 for construction.