Big Bend National Park

Location: Texas

Year Established: 1944

Area: 801,163.21 acres (3,242.2 km2)

Annual Visitors: 314,102

Named for the prominent bend in the Rio Grande along the US-Mexico border, this park encompasses a large and remote part of the Chihuahuan Desert. Its main attraction is backcountry recreation in the arid Chisos Mountains and in canyons along the river. A wide variety of Cretaceous and Tertiary fossils as well as cultural artifacts of Native Americans also exist within its borders.