Everything is bigger in Texas, from the ranches to the portions, but the state’s two national parks are true giants. Big Bend National Park in West Texas covers a staggering 1252 square miles of the Chisos Mountain range and the Rio Grande basin, while the state’s highest peaks and colorful fall foliage lure hikers to the 135-sq-mile Guadalupe Mountains National Park, beyond the oil-field emptiness of the Permian Basin.
Aside from these two prominent national parks, numerous other protected reserves welcome travelers interested in history, geology, and recreation. Here’s our selection of Texas’s top protected spaces.
1. Big Bend National Park – Best for Stargazing
Rising like a rock-walled fortress from the Chihuahuan Desert, the jagged Chisos Mountains anchor Big Bend National Park, which sprawls across 1252-sq-miles (3242-sq-km). Hiking trails twist across the forested slopes of the Chisos while the aptly named Window View Trail unveils a mountain-framed view of the sunset from the Chisos Basin. Beyond the mountains, the desert reveals its secrets via roadside pull-offs and hiking trails, where visitors can examine historic frontier ruins, dinosaur fossils, and desert flora up close. The recommended Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive culminates in a view of the sheer limestone walls of Santa Elena Canyon.
What sets Big Bend apart from other national parks? Its vast dark skies. At night, the sky transforms into a coal-black canvas where stars, planets, galaxies, and comets shine with unparalleled clarity and brightness. Thanks to its remote location and the absence of intrusive artificial light from cities and highways, the park earned a gold-tier International Dark Sky certification in 2012. If possible, spend a night in the park to partake in stargazing events.
In addition to stargazing, popular activities include hiking, cycling, and paddling on the Rio Grande, which separates the park from Mexico. The upper 69 miles of the 196-mile-long Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River runs alongside the national park and the Amistad National Recreation Area, a hotspot for boating and watersports located 230 miles east of Big Bend by car. Due to extremely high temperatures in summer and chilly mountain conditions in winter, the best seasons to visit are spring and fall.
2. Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Best for Fall Foliage
This secluded national park is most likely discovered by those traveling between El Paso and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The lack of crowds is just one of the advantages of this remote reserve. More than half of the park is federally designated wilderness, and, to maintain its wild nature, there are no paved roads. You’ll find no formal lodging or restaurants, but instead the highest point in Texas, alongside gypsum dunes, deep canyons, and an exposed 265-million-year-old fossilized reef created when a vast tropical ocean covered the region.
The park is 110 miles east of El Paso and 42 miles southwest of the visitor center at Carlsbad Caverns. Every fall, leaf peepers from across Texas gather at McKittrick Canyon for its vibrant foliage display, which is among the state’s best. The striking colors are brought by the bigtooth maples, glowing yellow, orange, and red from mid-October through mid-November. For more current information, check the Fall Colors Report.
More than 80 miles of hiking trails crisscross the park, venturing through canyons, riparian woodlands, and the Chihuahuan Desert. The Guadalupe Peak Trail climbs past pinyon pines and Douglas firs to the peak known as “The Top of Texas,” which towers above the rest of the state at a height of 8751ft (2667m). There are three developed campgrounds in the park.
3. Fort Davis National Historic Site – Best for Time Travel
Fort Davis feels timeless. The red-brick houses along Officers’ Row beneath Sleeping Lion Mountain have hardly changed since their construction in the 1880s. Periodic bugle calls resonate, reminding visitors of the fort’s military past. In summer, reenactors in period attire enhance the experience, stationed at various buildings around the fort’s parade grounds.
Visitors can enter the barracks, commissary, and post hospital to learn what life was like for the soldiers who protected mail coaches and freight wagons on the San Antonio-El Paso road from Comanche and Apache attacks. From 1867 to 1881, Fort Davis was exclusively manned by black cavalry and infantrymen who enlisted post-Civil War.
Hikers can follow the Fort Access Trail into Davis Mountains State Park, where sunsets cast a vivid glow across the rugged landscape. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the initial section of Indian Lodge in the 1930s, known for its striking white exterior. Today, it serves as an atmospheric hotel with a swimming pool and a range of ranger-led activities.
4. Padre Island National Seashore – Best for Beaches
Stretching southeast along the Texas coastline, Padre Island National Seashore is a sanctuary for both humans and wildlife. This protected area features windswept beaches, rounded dunes, flat grasslands, and tidal flats along a slender, 70-mile-long barrier island that separates the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre. The seashore serves as a favored nesting and resting spot for Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, and over 380 bird species have been recorded here.
Recreational opportunities include windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking, and driving on the beach. Paddlers and windsurfers frequent the hyper-saline lagoon, notably saltier than the ocean, and sport-fishing is popular in both the Gulf and the lagoon. There are two established campgrounds at the park and three primitive camping spots. However, keep in mind that the National Seashore is on North Padre Island, about 25 miles from Corpus Christi, and is distinct from the commercially developed South Padre Island further south.
5. Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument – Best for Geology
Humans arrived 65 million years too late to share the land with dinosaurs, but they coexisted with mammoths and other Ice Age animals around 13,000 years ago. Prehistoric mammoth hunters extracted the colorful Alibates flint for spear points and tools for butchering. Later, Native American hunters utilized the same flint for darts and arrowheads. The indigenous peoples in Antelope Creek dug numerous quarries to find the strongest pieces.
Today, rangers lead daily two-mile tours of the quarries, used between 1150 and 1450 CE. Enhance your experience by camping at one of the eleven free campgrounds at the adjacent Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, a man-made lake along the Canadian River, which has become a hub for water sports adventure.
6. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park – Best for a Sense of History
Four Spanish colonial missions—Concepción, San José, San Juan Capistrano, and Espada—line the 6½-mile Mission Trail, stretching south from the outskirts of downtown San Antonio along the San Antonio River. Constructed in the early 1700s, these missions significantly influenced the religion, language, and lifestyles of the region’s indigenous peoples, collectively known as the Coahuiltecans.
Mission Road connects the four missions, but visitors can also access them via the serene Mission Reach Hike & Bike Trail, where bike rentals are readily available in San Antonio. This hiking and cycling trail also links to the Alamo, the first San Antonio mission, and a legendary battleground during the Texas Revolution. The main visitor center for the historical park is located at Mission San José, where religious services continue to be held in all four missions.
7. Big Thicket National Preserve – Best for Paddling
Three paddling trails wend through Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas, once a refuge for Civil War draft dodgers. Depending on the chosen route, kayakers can drift through cypress bayous or skirt the edges of white-sand river beaches. For an immersive experience, visitors are encouraged to hike or paddle to primitive back-country sites—available through a free permit at the visitor center.
Paddling is not the only recreational activity available within this sprawling preserve. The reserve’s hiking and biking trails traverse nine distinct ecosystems, including uplands adorned with longleaf pines and forested slopes cloaked in beeches, magnolias, and loblollies. Additionally, primordial swamps populated with bald cypress and tupelo trees, alongside opportunities for spotting carnivorous pitcher plants, abound.
8. Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park – Best for Followers of the National Story
Maintained by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Lyndon B Johnson’s country ranch in Stonewall, also known as the Texas White House, offers a captivating glimpse into the personal interests and working habits of America’s 36th president. Although Johnson may have been geographically distant from Washington, D.C. during his trips home, his well-equipped presidential office and on-site airplane hangar reveal that he remained engaged with the issues confronting the country throughout the turbulent 1960s.
The historical park includes Johnson’s childhood home in Johnson City, located 14 miles east, along with the sprawling grounds of the family ranch. The oak-shaded family cemetery, where LBJ and his wife, Lady Bird, are buried, is situated on the ranch grounds. Be aware that the ranch house has temporarily closed for structural repairs, but visitors can still view the modest home that served as the former president’s birthplace.
