Leigh
Basecamp Terlingua - Texas
Updated: Sep 9, 2021
Basecamp Terlingua, Texas, April, 2021.
Four nights of tent glamping! Water & electric at tent site. The hardpan gullywash entrance road will rattle your fillings out but the location Is worth the effort! Outstanding showers & facilities, as well as a 24-hour coffee station. You must reserve online, as there is no camp host or reception area. Staff come in twice a day to clean and restock. You check yourself in and out. Absolutely no car camping allowed. Small wagons are provided to ferry your gear from parking lot to your tent or tipi.
The upscale tipis and lotus tents are divine, all luxuriously furnished with queen beds. The unique bubbles (there are only 2) book up to 2 years in advance.
We stayed in Terlingua as our base of operations since most Big Bend National Park campgrounds were operating at half-capacity due to Covid. It took about 40 minutes to drive into the national park, sometimes longer due to park road construction delays.
Tent platforms are 20-feet in diameter and raised about 1-2 feet from the desert ground. Solar lights provide a little assistance at night but you will still want your high-power flashlight. We heard coyotes almost every night! Sometimes in the evening, sometimes early in the morning before sunrise. The pack we heard had some young pups with distinctly higher pitched howls.
Tent sites cost approximately $60 per night in peak season (spring, when everyone and their cousin want to visit). In my opinion, worth it when you consider the hot showers and excellent coffee station. We grabbed coffee to go every morning.
The campground is “right next door” to Terlingua Ghost Town, home of the famous Starlight Theatre bar and grill. The food is excellent, the music is loud, the ambiance is crazy! For instance, the deceased Mayor of Lajitas, Clay Henry, has been taxidermy mounted and is on display. 😳
Horrified? The former Mayor was a beer-drinking goat. 😂
https://basecampterlingua.com/
