Texas national parks map
Sheet TX-13 · 2 national parks · 1 national seashore · 1 national preserve · 2 recreation areas
Texas has two full national parks — Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains, both west of the Pecos and both in the desert. The rest of the National Park Service presence in the state is a seashore, a preserve, two reservoirs, four historic sites and two monuments, and several of them are small enough to see in an afternoon.
Statewide view. The two national parks sit in the far west; the historic units cluster in San Antonio, the Hill Country and along the Rio Grande.
Every National Park Service unit in Texas
| Unit | Type | County | Nearest city | What's there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bend | National park | Brewster | Alpine, Marathon | The Chisos Mountains ringed by Chihuahuan Desert, with 118 miles of Rio Grande frontage and the Santa Elena, Mariscal and Boquillas canyons |
| Guadalupe Mountains | National park | Culberson, Hudspeth | Van Horn, Carlsbad NM | Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8,751 ft, the El Capitan cliff over US-62/180, and McKittrick Canyon's autumn maples |
| Padre Island | National seashore | Kleberg, Kenedy, Willacy | Corpus Christi | About 70 miles of undeveloped barrier island; four-wheel-drive beach south of the 5-mile marker, and summer Kemp's ridley turtle hatchling releases |
| Big Thicket | National preserve | Hardin, Polk, Tyler, Jasper and others | Beaumont, Kountze | Scattered units and river corridors rather than one block; pitcher-plant bogs, cypress sloughs and the Neches River |
| San Antonio Missions | National historical park | Bexar | San Antonio | Missions Concepción, San José, San Juan Capistrano and Espada strung along the San Antonio River, linked by the Mission Reach hike-and-bike trail |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | National historical park | Gillespie, Blanco | Johnson City, Fredericksburg | Two districts 14 miles apart on US-290: the boyhood home in Johnson City and the LBJ Ranch and Texas White House at Stonewall |
| Amistad | National recreation area | Val Verde | Del Rio | Reservoir behind Amistad Dam, shared with Mexico; boat ramps off US-90 and rock-art canyons on the Pecos and Devils arms |
| Lake Meredith | National recreation area | Hutchinson, Moore, Potter | Amarillo, Fritch | Canadian River reservoir in a canyon cut below the plains; the only large open water in the Panhandle |
| Fort Davis | National historic site | Jeff Davis | Fort Davis, Marfa | One of the best-preserved frontier forts in the Southwest, garrisoned by Buffalo Soldier regiments; restored officers' row below a rock rim |
| Chamizal | National memorial | El Paso | El Paso | Park and theater marking the 1963 Chamizal treaty that settled a century-old boundary dispute after the Rio Grande shifted course |
| Alibates Flint Quarries | National monument | Potter | Fritch, Amarillo | Quarry pits worked for thousands of years for banded agatized dolomite; ranger-guided tour only, reached from SH-136 |
| Palo Alto Battlefield | National historical park | Cameron | Brownsville | The prairie where the first battle of the Mexican–American War was fought on 8 May 1846, with the Resaca de la Palma site in the city |
| Waco Mammoth | National monument | McLennan | Waco | A dig shelter over Columbian mammoth bones left where they were found, on the Bosque River north of the city |
Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains
Big Bend was established in 1944 and covers 801,163 acres, more than any other protected area in Texas. Its road system is long: the Chisos Basin is 33 miles from the Persimmon Gap entrance, and Rio Grande Village is another 20 miles beyond the basin turn-off. The nearest fuel and lodging outside the park are at Terlingua and Study Butte on SH-118, with Alpine 100 miles from the basin and Marathon 70 miles from Persimmon Gap. The park sits in the Big Bend region and shares the river road with Big Bend Ranch State Park to the west.
Guadalupe Mountains protects the Texas end of a fossil reef that runs north into New Mexico, where it becomes Carlsbad Caverns. There is no road across the range: US-62/180 runs along the eastern base past El Capitan, the visitor center and Pine Springs sit beside it, and everything else is reached on foot. Dog Canyon, the northern trailhead, is a 100-mile drive around through New Mexico. The park is 110 miles east of El Paso and about 55 miles northwest of Van Horn.
The historic units
San Antonio Missions is the only World Heritage Site in Texas, inscribed in 2015 together with the Alamo, which the park service does not run — the Alamo is state property managed separately. The four park missions are working parish churches as well as ruins, and the Mission Reach section of the River Walk connects all four by trail from downtown.
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park is split between two towns on US-290 and is worth treating as two visits. The Stonewall district shares a boundary with the state historic site of the same name, so a single stop covers both the ranch airstrip and the show barn. Palo Alto Battlefield, Chamizal and Waco Mammoth are all inside city limits and take an hour or two each.
Two more units cross the state without a fixed address. The El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail follows the colonial road from the Rio Grande through Nacogdoches to the Louisiana line, and the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River covers the stretch of river downstream of Big Bend, administered by the park.
Planning distances
| From | To | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso | Guadalupe Mountains | 110 | US-62/180 E |
| Midland | Big Bend (Persimmon Gap) | 245 | I-20 / US-385 S |
| San Antonio | Big Bend (Persimmon Gap) | 400 | I-10 W / US-90 / US-385 |
| Austin | LBJ Ranch, Stonewall | 65 | US-290 W |
| Corpus Christi | Padre Island seashore | 30 | SH-358 / PR-22 |
| Amarillo | Alibates and Lake Meredith | 40 | SH-136 NE |
| Houston | Big Thicket visitor center | 95 | US-59/I-69 N / US-69 N |
Distances are approximate driving miles to the named entrance, not to park headquarters in every case.