Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is best known for its vast, super-rugged landscapes, encompassing the diverse ecosystems of the Chihuahuan Desert, the Chisos Mountains, and the meandering Rio Grande river. Located in southwestern Texas, the park offers a dramatic contrast of soaring cliffs, deep canyons, and expansive desert vistas.
The park is renowned for its remote and untouched wilderness, providing a sanctuary for a wide array of plant and animal species. Visitors can explore the park’s extensive network of hiking trails, leading to stunning viewpoints, hidden waterfalls, and ancient rock formations. The Rio Grande, which forms the park’s southern boundary, offers opportunities for scenic river trips and leisurely floats, with glimpses into the cultural heritage and shared history of the United States and Mexico. Big Bend National Park is also a stargazer’s paradise, as it is an International Dark Sky Park, a designation reserved for only the darkest of places on the planet.
VISIT Big Bend National Park:
Park Details
Big Bend National Park was established in .
| Address | |
|---|---|
| Phone | 432-477-2251 |
| Hours | Park entrances are open 24 hours daily, all year. |
| Entrance Fee | $30 per vehicle, valid for 7 days |
When to Visit: Weather vs. Peak Visitation
We crunched 30 years of historical weather and/or park service data to find the best months to visit Big Bend National Park. We looked for the optimal temperatures, the least amount of snow and rain, and stayed away from peak visitation months if we could help it. All this data then helped us paint a picture as to what the absolute best time to visit Big Bend National Park is.
Our data shows the best months to visit Big Bend National Park are April, June, February & May.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park Visits | 50,298 | 43,889 | 89,915 | 67,628 | 53,067 | 33,533 | 27,321 | 20,207 | 28,985 | 49,816 | 59,467 | 57,095 |
| Precipitation | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Avg Temp | 59 | 64 | 70 | 78 | 85 | 89 | 87 | 87 | 82 | 76 | 66 | 59 |
| Max Temp | 70 | 76 | 80 | 87 | 94 | 96 | 94 | 92 | 89 | 85 | 77 | 71 |
| Avg Temp | 30 | 33 | 38 | 45 | 54 | 61 | 63 | 63 | 58 | 48 | 38 | 31 |
| Min Temp | 18 | 20 | 23 | 33 | 43 | 55 | 58 | 58 | 47 | 35 | 24 | 17 |
Big Bend National Park Road Trips
Many family vacations consist of stringing one or more national parks together during a week-long trip. Creating these types of trips is our specialty! Here are the road trips we've created where Big Bend National Park is visited.
| Trip Name | Trip Miles | Trip Days |
|---|---|---|
| Guadalupe Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend & The Alamo | 898 | 7 |
Other Nearby National Park Sites
From national monuments, to historic sites to seashores and more, here are the other parks closest to Big Bend National Park.