We were in a 4x4, but didn't have time to drive down any of the unimproved roads in the park so I have no comments about campers along them. We camped at a site in the Rio Grande Village Campground, since we had a pop-up tent camper (rental) on that trip. Lovely campground, and we were one of maybe 8 total sites occupied; it didn't get busy until our last day there, when some festival was to begin.
I've consolidated all the photos I used to have in a slideshow format so they're now in our "Your Photos" area. You can get a good idea of the diversity of the park from our photos, since we drove all over -- Rio Grande Village, the Chisos Basin and all the way out to Santa Elena Canyon.
Photos from our October 2001 trip.
I never feared for our safety while we were there, but bear in mind it was one month after September 11 so 1) travel was down, overall, in that period and 2) there was a
very visible U.S. Border Patrol presence in and above the park, including all checkpoints being active. It was a little unnerving seeing Border Patrol helicopters anytime we hiked the Rio Grande Nature Trail near our campsite (and, thus, near the Rio Grande River -- our border with Mexico), but it wasn't that different from being at the coast and hearing an occasional Coast Guard aircraft on regular patrol.
We definitely plan to return to Big Bend again sometime. It's a trip not to be missed, with much to see and do. The desert is teeming with life! The National Park Service has done a superb job, providing well-marked roadside markers and nature trails that really help you get a feel for the park's flora and fauna, as well as the hazards early settlers faced living in the Big Bend region.
PostScript: Any time I think about Big Bend, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is "AMAZING views at night -- I had no idea there were so many stars!" I could scarcely make out even the most common constellations due to the number of stars that were visible, and the Milky Way literally took my breath away. I had seen it before, years ago, but don't think I'd ever had such a perfect view of it as from our campsite at Big Bend NP (though I wished the restrooms in the campground would suffer a power outage, because the light from them obscured some of my view.
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