Chisos Basin Visitor Center — Attraction in Manuel Benavides

Didnt completely put our stuff up in the bear box before we went on the hike our first day, thought it was only when we went to sleep. They watched us walk 10 minutes to our trail that we hiked for 4 hours I the heat, come back, the park employee come up huffing and puffing said how yall doing, freind said good just got off the window trail, he said oh yea we know exactly where you went, yall left yalls stuff out and we put it up in the box.... which is fine, but then threatened tickets, and went off on what I was wearing wasn't acceptable and not to hike in that again (flip flops) which I wore climbing in Colorado, think I'll be fine in native Texas. Also proceeds to tell me hes not trying to make me mad, but the whole time hes staring me down and seeming to targeting me trying to make me mad... So instead of stopping us and telling us to get our stuff up while they watched us walk 10 minutes to the trail, they took initiative to rumage through our belongings. They arent rangers or law enforcement and have no business doing that. Yea you aren't going to ticket us cuz you have no right and you'll get sued... second they bothered us every time we left and came back. Lights out at 10pm, not even head lamps for the kids allowed.. it had to be dead quite by 10pm. Which I understand to an extent but don't go harassing people cuz they have hyper kids. We are on vacation and were in a car for over 7 hours.... rude lady at the shop I made cry cuz why do you have to be rude! Not sorry I made her cry either, change your attitude.... idk if it was the heat or these people just have no people skills it's mind blowing.... and I'm 100% sure that guy was walking around our camp around 12am the last night we were there. Probably even both nights. I really should of got out of the tent and looked, it was definitely shoes in dirt I heard, even my friend made a comment the next day saying she heard foot steps out side the tent. Do not recommend staying here, after this experience I wouldn't even recommend going there. They weren't even this strict in Colorado and they have alot more bears there.... again I get we left our stuff out, but they went about it ALL WRONG. Also heard they frantically were searching for 2 girls that walked off with what they thought to be "not enough" water, harrassing everyone they saw to find them. Unnecessary.

Otherwise Beautiful scenery, summer time is not the best time to go, I am south Texas native so the heat didn't bother us too much as we are use to it. But it was hot, little shade, I always heard the big bend was Texas only forest, so I though it had trees.... but it's literal brush country and desert flora, I mean it is west Texas, idk why I thought it have trees hahaha... other than the rude, stalking, probably peeping Tom employees, we had a decent time. If you go, do not...

This is manned by volunteers but they are really bad:

They close 12-1 for lunch. The two people could take turns taking 30 minutes each, but no. I had a question at 12:01 p.m., and had to wait an hour. I have had super stressful jobs in life and never took an hour for lunch. Totally inconsiderate and self-centered.

When I visited March 4, 2025, they refused to multi-task, and made people who wanted to quickly buy a postcard wait until they finished spending 10 minutes with someone else asking about hikes.

They print out a page about the day's activities, and cut extras up the next day and put the squares out for people to stamp and put in their passports. As shown attached, the dark other side shows through! It would cost a fraction of a penny to provide squares from clean white paper for people to stamp, but no, these rude, inconsiderate, self-centered idiots pat themselves on the back that they are recycling, and to heck with the visitors. They say we can buy the blank white circles with sticky backs if we want something clean to stamp.

I also visited the Rio Grande Village Visitor Center, and no one there ever mentioned the RGV Nature Trail so I missed it.

These volunteers seem disgruntled and defensive and to resent visitors. The Castolon Visitor Center March 6 had the only friendly and helpful volunteer, a young man...

Chisos Basin Visitor Center – Big Bend National Park

This visitor center is definitely worth the drive—about 10 miles up from the main road, with stunning mountain views along the way. There’s plenty of parking, likely because of the nearby lodge, campground, and restaurant. Behind the visitor center store (the store is separate building from the visitor center, but it's right beside it), there’s a short 0.3-mile loop trail that leads to an incredible view of The Window. It’s a perfect stop, especially at sunset! I thought sunset would be around 5 or 7 PM, but during the summer it’s much later—closer to 8 or even 9 PM. Wild, right? Totally worth waiting for.

The Lost Mine Trail is nearby and a fantastic hike, especially in the early morning when it's cooler. It’s also a great spot for sunrise photos. Emory Peak Trail, another popular and more challenging hike, starts not far from here too.

I’ve now been to all the visitor centers at Big Bend except Castolon, and this one stands out. I plan to return soon to hike Emory Peak and finally make it to Santa Elena Canyon for some hiking and kayaking....