Big Bend National Park camping question
 

My family and I are planning on visiting Big Bend over spring break, and will be camping at one of the first come first serve sites. We will be arriving on a Saturday morning, but noticed the visitor's station doesn't open until 9am. We will be arriving before 9am to try and secure a camp site. Does anyone know if we will still be able to secure a camp site before checking in with the visitors center? Any info is greatly appreciated!

If you are staying in a developed campground, you will not go to any of the visitor centers to check in. Each campground has a self check-in station at the campground entrance.

This is assuming you are staying in a developed campground. If you are looking at a primitive site (either roadside or backpacking), then yes, you will have to wait until the visitor center is open and see what is available.

https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvisit/camping.htm

https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvis...untry-main.htm


I would not plan on finding anything on Saturday morning during Spring Break. Busiest time of the year and most people will probably get their the day before. You should have a good backup plan to either camp outside the park, lodging outside the park, or be prepared to do some zone camping (visit the backcountry page on their website to see what that involves). Essentially you pick a zone in the park, walk out there and camp anywhere but you must be a specified distance away from any road, structure, trail or water source and also out of eyesight of those things as well. It's not as bad as it sounds, I believe the minimum distance from a road is 0.5 miles so you can get away with a fairly short walk to/from your car. But again, that's a last resort if all else is booked and if your family is prepared for that kind of experience.

https://www.nps.gov/bibe/planyourvis...ss-camping.htm