I haven’t been desert camping in, uh, awhile. I grew up out west, but have lived in New Orleans, in the swamp, half my life now. So, prepping for this trip, I just tried to remember from my past experiences in the desert, which was a very long time ago.
The biggest things to keep in mind about desert camping are temperature extremes and wind. Temperatures in the desert can vary greatly in a day. While we were in Terlingua, we had temps as high as 100 degrees F in the daytime and as low as 40 degrees F at night. It’s important to bring enough to keep warm at night, and to be prepared for the daytime heat. I brought only one warm outfit and no warm blankets and I froze a couple of nights, but we have a propane tent heater.
We found The Goat Pens in Terlingua, Texas on Hipcamp. Terlingua Texas is a good jump-off point if you can’t get reservations at Big Bend National Park. It is about 8 miles from the west entrance. The one thing I do want to mention here is that there are not really any hotels anywhere near Big Bend National Park. The two towns with hotels/motels are Alpine, Texas, and Marathon, Texas. They are both a two-hour drive from Big Bend. Once you’re inside Big Bend, it’s huge and the drives are long, so I would definitely recommend going off-grid and heading for Terlingua to be close to the park entrance.
The Goat Pens is located on a well-maintained dirt road. It should be an easy drive for any car. It might get a bit muddy and rough in a good rain. The only amenities are vault toilets (outhouse) and a solar shower. There is no potable water or any water available except for the shower and hand washing. Let’s talk about vault toilets. It’s important to keep the door shut and the seat down. The smells are meant to vent through the pipe and when you don’t close the lid, you make the potty smell. So put that lid down! (Side rant, so many people were not doing this inside Big Bend, which also has mostly only vault toilets.) The Goat Pens vault toilets are clean. There are two, next to one another. The owner has set up solar lighting and a solar pump to a sink for handwashing. They are very nice, just don’t look down in a vault toilet, lol.
The owner also set up solar showers. These are magnificent after a day of hiking. It feels great to take a shower just before sunset and then head back to watch the desert sky turn pink and orange, followed by a night of a million stars and a viewable Milky Way.
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned the two main things to be concerned about in the desert are wind and temperature. Wind storms happened twice while we were out hiking. The first time it ate our pop-up toilet tent (which we didn’t use because we had the vault toilets). It ripped the fabric loops off, but our stakes were still holding. The second time it happened, it broke our pop-up tent pole. To be fair, our tent was 15+ years old and a pop-up and my mom bought it on clearance for less than $50 because the logo was printed upside down. It wasn’t designed to withstand desert winds, but it’s been through many trials. It died a sad death in the desert. We used duct tape the last night to hold the pole. We also had to take everything out of our tent twice and sweep the entire thing. My advice is to invest in good stakes for wind/sand, a broom, and a tent that can withstand the winds. The other tip at the Goat Pens is to set up closer to the hills to block the wind which we did. Throughout our stay, others had their tents lift up and blow around while they were out exploring as well. Invest in those good stakes y’all!
Desert Camping List:
* Windscreen for cooking in the wind
* Jerry Cans for water storage
* Good sand stakes
* Broom with dustpan for sweeping sand out of your tent, car, and more
* Guy Lines in case you need extra
* Clothes for both cold temperatures and heat
* Reflectix for all of your car windows
* Propane heater for inside tent use
* Travel clothesline for drying wet things
* Duct tape for emergency repairs
