Big Bend National Park is a land of borders. Situated along the Rio Grande boundary with Mexico, it is a place where countries and cultures meet. It is also a place that merges natural environments, from desert to mountains to rolling river, creating a great diversity of plants and animals. The park covers over 801,000 acres of west Texas in the place where the Rio Grande makes a sharp turn -- the Big Bend.

Author Fredrick Gelbach describes these borderlands aptly when he calls them "a carpet of interacting plants and animals deftly woven on a geologic loom." This statement conjures images of bold mountains, stark desert landscapes, and a ribbon of water slicing through it all. And indeed, Big Bend is a diverse natural area of river, desert, and mountains, a land of extremes -- hot and cold, wet and dry, high and low. To wander the shimmering desert flats, to ascend the rimrock of the desert mountains, to float the canyons of the Rio Grande, to be "on the border" is to experience sights and sounds and solitude unmatched anywhere else.

More than 150 miles of trails offer opportunities for day hikes and backpacking trips throughout this largest expanse of roadless public lands in Texas.

• The Chihuahuan Desert - x
• The Chisos Mountains - x
• The Rio Grand River Basin - x

• Drive the Boquillas Canyon Road to an overlook of the small village of Boquillas, Mexico, and to the border crossing. At road's end begins the Boquillas Canyon Trail, which takes you to the entrance of this rugged canyon.
• Hike the Chimneys, Mule Ears, or Grapevine Hills Trails for an intimate look at the desert environment.
• Explore the Chisos Mountains via trails to Boot Canyon, Emory Peak, and the South Rim, where you will feel far removed from the desert.