75 steps. That’s how far it was to get from our front door to the campground outhouse during our stay at Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

Black Gap is an undeveloped piece of rugged desert paradise in the Big Bend. No sissies allowed here. But if you’ve got what it takes, and your rig is small enough to fit in the headquarters campground, the only public outhouse in the entire area is available for your use. It’s a genuine Clivus Multrum so even on the hottest days it doesn’t stink or attract flies.

We love the solitude and scenery here and as a bonus, camping costs nearly nothing, just a $12 permit that’s good for six months. There are way more secluded places for small RVs in Black Gap, but we opt for the spot near the outhouse. By using it instead of our own latrine, we can reduce our water consumption and extend our stay from a typical 7 or 8 days to nearly two weeks!

Even when you’re conscientious about water usage, it’s unbelievable how much of this precious resource goes toward toilet flushing. Sure, some boondocking RVers will flush with gray water, but we found that using dish water to flush the toilet is just nasty. And although eco-groovy RVers like to talk about how cool RV composting toilets are, only few RVers are crazy brave enough to actually use one. Based on RV composting toilet reality checks like this one, we’ll pass, thanks.

Yeah, it’s inconvenient to walk 75 steps to the outhouse. But having this kind of scenery all to ourselves for as long as possible is totally worth it.