Terlingua, TX – I don’t like giving a 1 star rating to an RV Park. I really don’t. I’ve reviewed 149 RV Parks over the past 6 years and only doled out the lowest rating once. And we’ve stayed in some real doozies and I can usually find some reason to give 2 stars. I guess what I’m saying is do yourself a favor and avoid BJ’s RV Park in Terlingua, Texas at all costs.

Let’s start with the good: the sites are long and level and all utilities worked well. We stayed 8 nights and the voltage never dropped below 120V on either leg with a significant load applied at most times. Water pressure was consistent at 50 psi. Wifi was worthless, but if I dinged RV Parks for poor wifi I’d have zero 5 star reviews. In addition, the RV park is only a 10 minute drive from the entrance to Big Bend National Park.

The view from the park

RV sites at BJ’s

So, where did it all go wrong? Simply put, I’m not sure anyone works here. It’s approaching anarchy at this campground. There is no office, the listed phone number results in no answer and the voice mailbox is full.  What site do you park in? Who knows! Just pick one I guess and see what happens. Where do you place trash? I’m guessing in the back of a pickup truck because there was already some trash in it? Other campers I talked to had the same guess. In 8 days no one ever emptied this pick up truck, resulting in trash being piled up comically high and then cascading to the ground in an unsightly heap. At some point a pit pull decided this trash pile was his territory and would growl at anyone who approached. Who’s dog was this? No one knows. Again, I don’t think anyone works here.

This small sign at ground level is easy to drive past, the instructions tell you to call this number to find out which sites are available (i.e. not reserved) and no one ever answers the phone number listed

The trash dumpster?

We made a reservation almost a year ahead of time to ensure we would have a space. We were assigned site 11 per a confirmation email. Our visit coincided with the federal government shutdown which closed the campgrounds in Big Bend National Park. The owner (or care taker) came out a short time after we arrived and were walking around trying to figure out what to do/where to go. She informed us she was trying to be helpful to people who had plans to stay in the National Park and had given our reserved site and other sites to those people. At the time we made our reservation we had to give our length information, however this person seemed surprised that she now had a 45 foot motorhome to “fit in somewhere”. The only open spot left in the campground was at the end of a row. Everyone had been using that space to come and go from their sites. With our RV parked there, campers continued to drive through the site and around our RV to get in/out. Because we are 45 feet in length and have slides on both sides, this was a tight squeeze and we are grateful we did not get hit. The owner (or care taker) said we could move as soon as another space opened up and she would be back in touch with us. We never heard from her or saw her or any other employees for the rest of our stay (8 nights) at this park!

Our first space was at the end of the row and everyone drove through the site. Good thing we didn’t try to sit outside or someone flying around the corner would have hit us

By the third morning several spaces were open (but still not #11) and we tried to call the listed number several times but never got anyone. We took matters into our own hands, picking a site that would fit our RV with easy ingress/egress, and moved into it. Karla wrote a note and placed it into the self-registration box. The RV in spot 11 when we arrive was a much shorter trailer without slides and would have fit much better into the original space we had to stay in. The kicker was that apparently our advanced reservation MEANT NOTHING. We have never had our spot given away without having a similar spot to the one we reserved.

We had plenty of space in our second site

Another view of our site

This will never be a nice campground (the showers and laundry are located in an old, run down single wide trailer with a sign on the inside saying, “Please do not FUCK with these lightbulbs or I will hunt you down and kill you”). But with a small amount of management it could at least get two stars.

The shower/laundry/self registration building

The common area

Rating:

Campground website: BJ’s RV Park