Big Bend National Park

Big Bend was the first national park in Texas. The legislature created Texas Canyons State Park in 1933 around the Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas canyons, soon renamed it Big Bend State Park and added the Chisos Mountains, and the state bought the land and gave it to the nation. The park opened in 1944, with a staff of five, and only 1,409 people came that first year.

It now covers more than 1,250 square miles, about the size of Rhode Island. The Rio Grande runs for more than 100 miles along its southern edge, through the three great canyons. Most of the park is open Chihuahuan Desert, and in the middle rise the Chisos Mountains, the southernmost range in the continental United States, lying wholly inside the park and holding relict forests of pine, fir and aspen left from the last ice age. More than 400 kinds of birds have been recorded here, and fossil finds include the largest known pterosaur. People have lived in the Big Bend for more than 10,000 years, among them the Jumano, Chisos, Mescalero Apache and Comanche, and later Mexican and Anglo farmers, ranchers and miners.

Panther Junction is the park headquarters. Distances are long, services few, and summer heat in the desert and along the river is dangerous, so carry water and fill the tank before you come. The park is open around the clock all year. The Chisos Basin area is closed for construction that began in May 2025, so check the park's site before you plan around it.