Travel Guide Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park is a must-see for any outdoorsman visiting Texas. With about 320,000 visitors per year, it is the least visited of the great national parks in the United States. In comparison, the Grand Canyon of Colorado attracts 5 million visitors. This "low" attendance has several advantages for the visitor, including the feeling of exploring new and wild lands, like an explorer.The "big bend" is so named because it is centered on a bend in the Rio Grande, on the Mexican border. It is a charismatic place, which includes the Rio Grande canyon, set in sheer cliffs, as well as part of the Chihuahua desert. It extends over 3242 km2. It is particularly rich in fossils from the Tertiary and Quaternary periods, as well as in relics of Amerindian cultures, notably that of the Comanches. The Rio Grande, Rio Bravo for the Mexicans, mythical river, so often evoked in westerns, forms a natural border of 1600 km between Texas and Mexico. The park covers 393 km of this section (one eighth). The desert portion is particularly valuable. It protects 1,200 species of plants as well as about 490 species of animals.The rules of the park are particularly restrictive because of the heavily guarded border with Mexico. In particular, the United States administers only the portion of the river as determined in the 19th century. As the Rio Bravo has moved south, most of the river now flows on the Mexican side.Very well preserved, Big Bend offers its visitors a lot of peace. Its landscapes, where desert, canyons and mountains are mixed, are really superb and of an impressive variety. At nightfall, the spectacle of the stars twinkling in the firmament, due to the total absence (or almost) of light on more than 80 km around, can be observed as rarely.