Nothing can spoil a river trip so quickly as the discovery of human waste and toilet paper at a prime camping spot. To protect the quality of the Rio Grande ecosystem and to enhance the wilderness experience of a river trip, all users of the Rio Grande must apply the Golden Rule to the issue of human waste.

The National Park Service requires all commercial outfitters and private river parties to carry out their solid human waste on overnight trips. We require all river users to carry out solid human waste in one of two ways.  A list of suppliers for washable reusable toilets is provided. Currently bagless systems may be rented locally at Desert Sports (432-371-2727) and Rio Grande Adventures (432-371-2567) in the Terlingua area. The location in Big Bend National Park for dumping human waste from bagless systems is located at the Santa Elena take-out.  Mariscal trips can dump at the RV station at the Rio Grande Village campground.  For river trips exiting Boquillas Canyon at Heath Canyon, there is a dump station at the Heath Canyon Ranch Resort.  For Lower Canyons trips there are dump stations at the Dryden Mercantile and Canyon RV park in Sanderson.  There is a small fee for use of any of the dump stations outside the park.

The second option is the new bagged Restop or Wag Bag (or other blue-bag system that chemically alters the bag's contents into an inert substance) single use bag system.  This option, popular with small groups, can be purchased at park bookstores or ordered online from a variety of merchants and are affordably priced compared to septic compatible models.

Day users are encouraged to also use a containment system.