By state
National parks in Texas
Every national park and public-land unit in Texas, scored and ranked by our Experience Score.
Texas takes some planning, but it pays you back for the effort. The NPS units here cover a range that borders on absurd: Chihuahuan Desert peaks at Guadalupe Mountains, river canyons at Big Bend in the far west, the humid and biologically tangled forests of Big Thicket in the east, and barrier island stretches along the Gulf Coast at Padre Island. Amistad and Lake Meredith pull water-seekers into drier country, while Canyon Lake and Whitney Lake add more accessible reservoir recreation to the mix. Big Bend gets most of the press, but quieter units like Big Thicket and Guadalupe Mountains hold up just as well once you actually get there. Self-sufficient travelers who don't mind long drives between stops will feel right at home, as will families comfortable with heat and open terrain, and anyone chasing genuinely dark skies far from city light.
100DOES IT ALL
NPS / E Paola
National Recreation Area · TX
Amistad National Recreation Area
Amistad National Recreation Area sits on the Texas-Mexico border, where the Rio Grande, the Devils River, and the Pecos River all feed into a large freshwater reservoir.
100DOES IT ALL
NPS Photo / Scott Sharaga
National Preserve · TX
Big Thicket National Preserve
Big Thicket National Preserve occupies a corner of southeast Texas where eastern hardwood forests, Gulf coastal plains, and Appalachian foothills all run into each other, which is why the area ended up as one of the most biologically diverse protected places in North America.
100DOES IT ALL
NPS/Bieri
National Park · TX
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Guadalupe Mountains sits in far west Texas as one of the most underdeveloped parks in the national system, and that is entirely by design.
90DOES IT ALL
NPS
National Park · TX
Big Bend National Park
Big Bend is one of the most remote and rewarding national parks in the lower 48.
90DOES IT ALL
NPS Photo/ Thomas DiGiovannangelo
National Seashore · TX
Padre Island National Seashore
Padre Island National Seashore stretches 66 miles along the Gulf Coast of South Texas, and the fact that almost none of it has been developed is exactly the draw.
89DOES IT ALL
NPS Photo
National Recreation Area · TX
Lake Meredith National Recreation Area
Lake Meredith sits in the Texas Panhandle, where the Canadian River carved 200-foot canyon breaks around a reservoir most passing drivers never expect to find.
88DOES IT ALL
Ranger Samuell Price
Lake & Reservoir · TX
Canyon Lake
Canyon Lake is a Corps of Engineers reservoir sitting in the Texas Hill Country, about sixteen miles northwest of New Braunfels and roughly halfway between San Antonio and Austin.
86DOES IT ALL
USACE photo by Matthew Jones
Lake & Reservoir · TX
Whitney Lake
Whitney Lake sits in central Texas as a U.S.
83WIDE RANGE
NPS
National Historical Park · TX
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park
Palo Alto Battlefield sits on the flat coastal prairie just north of Brownsville, Texas, a compact but worthwhile park that preserves the site where the Mexican-American War began on May 8, 1846.
76WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo
National Memorial · TX
Chamizal National Memorial
Chamizal National Memorial sits on the Texas-Mexico border in El Paso, and it commemorates something genuinely unusual in North American history: a century-long boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico that ended peacefully in 1963.
76WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo / Max Kandler
National Historic Site · TX
Fort Davis National Historic Site
Few frontier military posts in the American Southwest survived as intact as Fort Davis, and that's exactly what makes it worth going out of your way for.
76WIDE RANGE
NPS Photo/Andrew Shirey
National Historical Park · TX
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
San Antonio Missions runs along the south side of San Antonio as a walkable history corridor linking four Spanish colonial missions built in the early 1700s: Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan, and Espada.
74WIDE RANGE
Share the Experience, Julio Zaga
National Wildlife Refuge · TX
Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge
Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge covers 39,000 acres of coastal marsh on the Texas Gulf Coast just outside Houston, and it was built for one purpose: birds.
73WIDE RANGE
NPS / G. Fisseler
Wild & Scenic River · TX
Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River
Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River stretches 196 miles through remote desert canyons in the far southwest corner of Texas, managed alongside Big Bend National Park.
72WIDE RANGE
USACE
Lake & Reservoir · TX
Hords Creek Lake
Hords Creek Lake is a small, free Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in central Texas, about 8 miles west of Coleman.
57GOOD RANGE
NPS
National Historic Trail · NM
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro does not fit neatly into what most people think of as a park.
57GOOD RANGE
LBJ Library Photo by Frank Wolfe
National Historical Park · TX
Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park
LBJ National Historical Park spreads across two sites in the Texas Hill Country, and together they trace Johnson's life from start to finish.
57GOOD RANGE
Thamara Hernandez, FWS
National Wildlife Refuge · TX
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
Santa Ana punches well above its weight as a birding destination, though it works fine as a casual day trip too.
55GOOD RANGE
NPS Photo
National Monument · TX
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
Alibates Flint Quarries is one of the oldest and least-visited archaeological sites in the country, sitting out on the Texas Panhandle where people mined colorful agatized dolomite for tool-making for roughly 13,000 years.
54FOCUSED
John Embesi/NOAA
Recreation Area · TX
Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Flower Garden Banks sits 80 to 125 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, which puts it among the most logistically demanding marine protected areas in the country.