Seminole Canyon State Park Campground

Seminole Canyon State Park in Comstock, TX is one of our favorite spots, 3 miles north of the Mexican border, at the corner of the Pecos and Rio Grande rivers. It’s very safe from border crossings — the canyons are straight drops of a couple hundred feet. The night sky is spectacular on clear nights — the Milky Way is the brightest we’ve ever seen.

The Ranger-led tour of Fate Bell Pictograph Site was terrific and is highly recommended. Despite the fact that there are hundreds of Rock Art sites in the area, few are available to the public.

At the end of the Rio Grande Trail is an overlook to Panther Cave Pictograph site — binoculars are required. It is at the junction of the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers, a worthwhile sight itself.

The best campsites, by far, are E1,E3 and E5 if you want power and water or even numbered sites in the 40’s if a primitive site will do. Primitive sites are large pull-throughs that were originally intended for big rigs before budget cuts hit in 2009. If the electric/water sites mentioned earlier aren’t available, try E2, E4 and E6 or the sites in the big circle with the same orientation as E1. We were stuck in 27 one year, buried between big rigs and it was nowhere near the experience of the primitive sites —- with the open feel and spectacular sunrises.

No Verizon coverage. Camper next to us had 4 bars of AT&T 4G.

The person at the front office let us drive around and pick our spot. We opted for the dry camping loop where there was just 1 other rig during our stay. It was quiet and peaceful with vast views of the desert sky.

There are quite a few trails that we would have liked to check out, but since we only stayed 1 night we weren't able to.

AT&T: DOWNLOAD 32.86Mb/s, UPLOAD: 7.71Mb/s
No Verizon.

We opted to drive Highway 90 on our eastward trek through Texas this time around, and Seminole Canyon State Park is a perfect distance from the Davis Mountains area for a stop.

We took the tip about the primitive sites in other reviews, and so glad we did - they are marvelous if you don't need hook-ups. Large, level, scenic and right by the trail entrance.

We took the guided tour to the pictographs, which was very lovely. And we hit the trails down to the Panther Cavern overlook. Definitely recommend doing part of the Canyon Rim Trail, it's breath-taking.

We really enjoyed our stay at this park, and would definitely come back. So much to discover here!

As far a cellular coverage - we did get some usable Verizon from time to time. But unlike other reports, AT&T was being quite sluggish during our stay.

Daily rate does not include our 12 month Texas Park Pass ($70).

We had planned in staying in the Premium Primitive area of this campground, based on others recommendations, but rain and clouds forecasted for the week put us in the partial hook up area.

If you can, stay in the Premimum Primitve area. Those are pull thru sites, open views and space.

Our site was fine but needs some grooming. Includes a covered picnic table and grill area.

There is an onsite dump and water. Bathroom was clean but dated.

We added Seminole Canyon State Park to our itinerary based on the recommendations of several fellow travelers. After reading the Campendium reviews, we opted for one of the “premium primitive” sites and asked for one of the even numbered 40’s. So glad we did!

The sites were very long, level paved pull-throughs spaced well apart. The 40’s are on the outside and provide lovely unobstructed views of the surrounding desert. No hook-ups at the primitive sites, but if you can dry camp for a few days, I think they’re the nicest spots in the campground.

There are water and electric and water only sites on the hill above the primitive sites. These were closer together and some lacked the views. Of those, #26 and #1 would be our pick if available. There is just one bathroom/shower house in the campground with three stalls and two showers per side, so it can be busy.

The visitor’s center has some excellent displays on the history of the area. We did the canyon tour ($5) of the pictographs – 4000-year-old painted rock art from the nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes. Very interesting and highly recommended! (See our blog post for pictures.)

Note: $8 is the daily rate for a primitive campsite. If you don’t have a $70 annual Texas State Park Pass they add an additional $3 per/person daily park fee. Stock up in Del Rio or Alpine, there isn’t much in between in the way of services or shopping.

There is Wifi at the visitor’s center and bathroom, but don’t count on it. We found it varied from excruciatingly slow to totally unusable. No Verizon service at all except for an occasional few minutes of 1bar of 1X – never enough to make a call and rarely able to text. Not enough signal to use the booster.

We spent five days here to do some hiking and relaxing. A five day stay is too long for the amount of activities there are in the area. In hindsight, I probably should have done only 3 days.

We stayed in one of the premium primitive sites. It was easy to pull in. The view of the horizon was amazing. Others have covered the beauty of the hiking trails and sights.

We only had one bar of occasional 1X on Verizon which allowed for the occasional text message to get through. My husband's Tracfone must be on an AT&T tower. His flip phone was able to get 2 bars of 3G.

Our investment in our WiFi Ranger really paid off in this location. We could see the visitor's center and were able to pick up their WiFi in our RV. It wasn't the speediest Internet...but it was much appreciated when we had a nasty hail and thunderstorm.

The campground WiFi enabled up to track the aforementioned storm via the National Weather Service website. I would highly recommend having a weather radio with you when staying in this location. You can't rely upon the Internet or your phone to get weather warnings. If you are tenting, be prepared for nasty weather. The hail storm dented our vehicles. People in tents had to scramble into their cars when it got really bad. But that is good advice no matter where you camp.

We had five OTA television stations, all from over the border. Channel 5 would often have movies or kid's shows in English.

We would stay here again if in this location. Just stock up before you arrive. Del Rio is a good 30 minutes away.

On our Nov 2017 RV trip to Big Bend we paid a brief visit to the very unique Seminole Canyon State Park. This is one very unique State Park! Located in the heart of the desert just a few miles from the Rio Grand River this park features rock art that is well over 10K years old. Touring the Fate Bell Shelter is a bit of a hike but well worth the effort. Our visit to Seminole Canyon State Park was highlighted by beautiful weather on the day of our hike down to the Fate Bell Shelter. Join us on our visit to Seminole Canyon State Park.

Highly recommend! Very peaceful and quiet. We stayed in the primitive dry camp area which I think is better than the hookups sites. The primitive area is even more spread out, very large spaces, more level, views are even better I would say. You get a clear view of the sunrise on this side, and are closer to the trail access. Try to get a site on the eastern side of the primitive camping and you will have an even better view and space (I think these are odd numbered sites). The hikes are very nice: some flat, easier hiking but with big rewards of canyon views and you may even spot a fossil or two! No service except for ATT which does work well. There is a dump station in the hookups area.

Real price because day use fee was added on top was $20, which is pricey for dry camping. Many burs or spurs in "grass" near picnic table at our site. Our dog and I were both pricked. Showers good. Trails & museum are beautiful and very well done. Decent stopover before Big Bend Area.

Did the Canyon Rim Trail and Rio Grande Trail. Cool nights but amazing sunrise and sunsets. The best sites are on the other side of the hill. continue past the dump station. Also a great place to stay as you are travelling across the country since it is really close to the highway.
Not busy but we were there during the week at the end of November.