Information about
Big Bend National Park Backcountry camping and Backcountry Permits.
BBNP has many miles of backcountry dirt roads. Along many of these dirt roads there are
backcountry campsites. A few campsites
are accessible by any size RV. These are
generally within a mile or so of the paved highway. Others require some high clearance
without a long overhang behind the rear axle. On most RV's it is the overhang and not the ground clearance. On some you may need 4 wheel
drive to crawl over rocks and climb up short steep, rocky sections of the road,
so no RV’s there.
There are 5 sites, Grapevine Hills Rd #2 & #3, Paint
Gap Rd #1, 2 & 3 which don’t allow RV’s to camp there. The reason is that
these sites are highly visible from the paved highway. Since they require people doing “zone
camping" to be out of sight of paved highways, it is only fair to require RV’s
to be out of sight of the paved highway.
This seems reasonably fair to me, even though it remove 5 campsites
which could be accessible by RV’s
There are 6 backcountry campsites which are accessible by
almost any size RV.
-- Hanold Draw
-- Grapevine Hills #1
-- Croton Springs #1 & #2. These share a single parking area.
-- K Bar #2.
-- K Bar #1 is good for RV’s up to about 30’. The parking area is too small for large RV’s
to pull into.
Photo of Croton Springs #1 & #2
The campsites are just scraped off sections of the desert
ground with old telephone poles laying on the ground for borders. Most have bear & javalina resistant food
boxes, but no tables, grills or fire pits.
No campfires are permitted. For a
complete list of regulations go here.
With a few exceptions these campsites are several hundred
yards or several miles from another campsite.
Because of the distance between campsites there is a great deal of
privacy in spite of being in wide open country. To view photos and info about the campsites
go to Big Bend
National Park Primitive Roadside Campsites
A backcountry permit is required to stay in these
campsites. There is a $10 fee ($5 with a federal senior pass) for the
backcountry permit. The backcountry
camping is free. The permit is good for
up to 14 consecutive days. If you come
out of the backcountry and spend a night at a place other than in the
backcountry, then you need another $10 permit to backcountry camp.
You must go to a visitor center to get a permit. To help
you plan your backcountry camping and view the availability of campsites you can
log on to the Big Bend NP
Backcountry Permits website. (If you
are into overnight backpacking, this website also includes the hike-in sites in
the Chisos Mountains.) While in the
website you can fill out a worksheet with the backcountry sites and dates you
want to stay at them. You still must go
to the VC to actually have your permit issued.
You can fill out your worksheet one day before you start your BC stay,
but if you do, you MUST pick up your permit that day. The computer system purges all worksheets at
6:30am each day, so any previous day’s worksheets not resulting in a permit are
gone each morning.
This is a real improvement over the old system where the
park used a big paper book with all the campsites listed in the book. You needed to go the Panther Junction VC to
see the campsite book or if you were at one of the other VC they would call PJ
and log in your selection. About a year
ago, a BBNP volunteer computerized the back country permit system.