Glamping Trip to Terlingua, Lajitas and Big Bend National Park

I have to admit the idea of driving almost 1,000 miles in one long weekend didn’t excite me but the new glamping outpost in Terlingua lured me enough that I could handle the idea of being a road warrior for a few days. I’m talking about Basecamp Terlingua. The rural old mining outpost is located about 15 minutes from the Texas and Mexico border. The first time I heard about Basecamp Terlingua was in the summer of 2019 and I was immediately drawn to the concept of the place. It has everything for people like me; glamping either in teepees, bubble rooms, airstreams, or abode casitas. The main draw is the beautiful vistas of the desert but also you don’t have the fear of waking up with spiders, rattlesnakes or scorpions rustling around in your tent or sleeping bag. Basecamp has the infamous bubble rooms and also high-style casitas that have all the amenities you could wish for in a desert getaway.

I stayed in the ghost-town of Terlingua by the beautiful historic cemetery. Interestingly, the casita I was across the street from the cemetery so I was able to walk over to it and explore the intricately handmade tombstones and grave sites at sunset and see the milky way as there are no city lights for hundreds of miles.

View of the Milky Way from the cemetery in Terlingua Ghost Town.

A short drive down the road and you are almost in Mexico and come to the town of Lajitas. It turns out real estate tycoons have been interested in this location since the 1980s and this unlikely area is home to the Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa. The main reason I went was to look at a store there that specialized in Day of the Dead artwork. I ended up getting this beautiful stone skull. They had lots of altar pieces but this one caught my eye. I’m a sucker for sparkly skulls.

Sparkly Stone Sugar Style Skull ($100) from boutique in Lajitas, Tx.

Even if you aren’t into massive amounts of hiking, going to Big Bend for the afternoon for a day trip is highly recommended. I hadn’t been there since I was in high school and I was blown away by the geological formations.

We were lucky to experience a storm after we left the park for the day and were back at the Basecamp safe and sound. I caught some nice photos of lightning as the storm moved in. Overall, we had two excursions in our weekend trip to Big Bend and Lajitas each not monopolizing our time to just relax and enjoy the quaint town of Terlingua with all its charm and beauty.