Have you ever dreamed about taking an epic RV trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas? It seems like it is a world away from everything which makes a trip there seem magical, and a little daunting.

On the very first episode of the summer season of The RV Atlas we are thrilled to have our friend Ryan Levy on the show to act as our guide to Big Bend National Park! Ryan has visited many times and he has an incredible passion for this magnificent park.

Ryan works in residential construction lives North of Austin in the great state of Texas. His traveling team includes his wife Jennifer and son Benjamin, daughter Bekah, and their two dogs Veddie and Carli Lloyd. They travel in a 2018 Casita Spirit Deluxe. Jennifer and Ryan are members of the The RV Atlas group on facebook and longtime RV Atlas podcast listeners!

The following notes were created by Ryan for his interview on The RV Atlas podcast. We have published them here in their entirety so listeners to the podcast can reference them for planning their own trips! All of the photos are also from Ryan's collection!

To listen to Ryan's interview click on the media player above--or subscribe to The RV Atlas wherever you get your favorite podcasts!

Thanks so much to Ryan for contributing such an awesome episode to the RV Atlas podcast! If you are ready to start planning your own epic adventure--then read on!

Where Is Big Bend National Park?

One of the most remote NPs in the lower 48

If you look at Texas, it has that bottle opener hook out in West Texas– that hook is basically Big Bend – it is the “big bend” in the Rio Grande River

In Texas we measure distance in hours, not miles – but no matter how you measure it, it’s far from anywhere.

El Paso to Panther Junction Visitor Center - ~5 hours

Austin ~7-8 hours

Dallas ~8-9 hours

Houston ~9-10 hours

You will drive through Fort Stockton if coming from the east on I-10)….that is your closest Walmart.  We’ve boondocked at that Walmart on 4 or 5 different occasions – there are always a slew of rigs there.  

Areas of Big Bend National Park

If you split the park into thirds….the Northern and southern thirds of the park are mostly desert without any infrastructure

The middle third of the park is where the lion’s share of the visitor access is and it can be split into 4 areas – use a little imagination and think of it as a triangle (wide and short)

Bottom left (SW) corner is Castolon

Bottom right (SE) corner is Rio Grande Village

The top (north) corner is Panther Junction Park Headquarters/Visitor Center

In the middle of the triangle you have the Chisos Mountains

The park is massive and very spread out

At over 800,000 acres 

~50% larger than New Jersey)

Bigger than Yosemite, Smokie Mountains, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain NP

Driving from area to area within the park will take some time

Be mindful of fuel

Coming from the north, Marathon is the last town to get gas.

Coming from the west, you can fill up in Study Butte

There is a gas station next to the Panther Junction visitor center, but depending on where you are in the park, that could be 45 minutes away

What to Do in Big Bend National Park

Big Bend is a giant desert, but what makes it special are all the unusual features….I think that is what has people coming back over and over because you can’t do it all in one trip.  I’ve been three times and there are still some big ticket “To Dos” that I still haven’t done yet. 

If you’re visiting for a day or two and just want to get ...