It took me a bit to understand the graphs, but I appreciate them.
That huge drop in tent-camping at Big Bend during the summer is a solid warning. If you do, I highly recommend doing so in the mountains, where it can be 20-40F cooler than the lower altitudes.
I camped at Chisos Basin in July a couple years ago. We were hoping to canoe and camp along the river for a night, but that section of the Rio Grande was mostly dried up at the time. The days were in the 90s and the nights were mid-80s. At lower altitudes, the temps were around 115F during the day.
Regardless, I highly recommend the park overall. It's absolutely breathtaking. We did the Lost Mine trail, which is about 5 miles round trip. The view at the top is just outstanding.
I’ve just finished a three month trip driving twice across the US, hitting 21 states and camping in most of those (wife and three young kids). In summer. It’s been very hot and Big Bend was particularly brutal. We were up in the Chisos Basin the first night where it was cooler and then down near the Mexican border the second night where a storm made it bearable.
We camped in a mixed of national parks/monuments, state parks, water authority areas, BLM, etc.
I've often had to resort to google satellite photos and referenced flat dirt patches with BLM territory maps to make sure I wasn't on private land. Wish there was an easier way.
Campendium (site and app) has been quite reliable. I set my search to Public and Free. Or if that reveals nothing, I untick free.
We bought a shuttle bus in California, ripped out most of the seats, put in beds, then drove it over to Florida and back again. Literally hours away from flying back to Australia tonight. I’ll go through and review each site on Campendium when I have a minute.
@isaacforman on IG for anyone interested. Lots of action in the stories.
Campendium misses a lot of actual spots. It might have one camping spot listed for a 25 mile radius but there are actually tons of spots in that area. It's not precise enough imo and only guides me where to start looking on satellite photos and BLM maps again.
Yeah, obviously it only shows an area by name and then it’s up to you to read reviews or use intuition to find specific spots. Often it’s a free for all once you’re in there. App is faster than using various sites IMO.
That huge drop in tent-camping at Big Bend during the summer is a solid warning. If you do, I highly recommend doing so in the mountains, where it can be 20-40F cooler than the lower altitudes.
I camped at Chisos Basin in July a couple years ago. We were hoping to canoe and camp along the river for a night, but that section of the Rio Grande was mostly dried up at the time. The days were in the 90s and the nights were mid-80s. At lower altitudes, the temps were around 115F during the day.
Regardless, I highly recommend the park overall. It's absolutely breathtaking. We did the Lost Mine trail, which is about 5 miles round trip. The view at the top is just outstanding.