Lower Madera Canyon Campground

I visited this campground during March 2022. This was my first trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park. The Lower Madera Canyon Campground is close to Lajitas and not far from Terlingua and the entrance to Big Bend National Park. A few of the sites in the campground have shade shelters, but most do not, including this one. The roads in the campground are narrow with brush along the sides, so passing another vehicle can be tricky. Most of the sites are fairly short (#11 held my Taxa TIgermoth and Jeep Renegade with some room to spare, but those are both short vehicles). The vault toilets are clean and just a short walk from any spot in this campground. There are no hookups of any kind and no water at the campground so be prepared, but this is a beautiful area well worth the trip.

Traveling from Presidio, TX to Lajitas, TX on the very scenic FM170 we checked out Lacuesta, Upper & Lower Madera and Grassy Banks campgrounds, made our choice then proceeded to the Barton Warnock Visitors Center 15 miles away to make a 2-night reservation. There we learned that they only allow tents and trailers 18’ max. Big surprise to us and most disappointing. The reason given was “site creep”. Oddly enough just the day before we tried to make a reservation at the Fort Leaton Historic Park and she couldn’t make a reservation because it wasn’t for that day. She knew we had a 24’ motor home and didn’t mention anything about the 18’ limit. At this time the only RV campground is at Lacuesta and it is a very undesireable location. They offer 5 corrals side by side to back your rig into and it sits on the edge of FM170. You can go to Texas State Parks website and you’ll see 24’ allowances but don’t believe it. We ended up staying at the Lajitas RV Park. Not really our style but daylight was marching on. Gets dark at 5:30 now.

I was a bit nervous about choosing this site for our Christmas vacation stay since it was not rated here at all. It is beautiful site close to Rio Grands with amazing sunsets and close proximity to Lajita and other hiking/biking areas. This site is only 10 minutes drive from entrance to Contrabando trail system where you have miles of hiking/biking options.

The loop has sites 1-15 and two additional sites (16 and 17) that were a bit larger and offer more seclusion. We stayed at #16 and loved it. It is dusty but this is Texas desert after all. Big Bend State park was less crowded, equally beautiful, and offered amazing adventures. Highly recommended.

The entrance to the gravel road from the main road is not signed well if you are coming from Lajitas. It says River access and it is literally below Upper Medera. You can hike to it. However GPS is spot on and you shouldn’t miss it. No cell connection at all.