Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park is in southwestern Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border inside a huge bend of the Rio Grande, which forms the park's southern boundary and for which it is named. Most of the park's 801,163 acres is desert. The Chisos Mountains, in the south, are forested; Emory Peak, the highest point, reaches 7,835 feet. Three beautiful canyons, the Boquillas, Mariscal, and Santa Elena, were formed by the Rio Grande and are about 1,500 feet high. More than 1,000 plant species are found, some of them unique to the park. Big Bend became a national park in 1944.