By state · TX

National Parks in Texas.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

Texas has more than fifteen NPS units, most prominently Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, both in the Trans-Pecos high desert. Other Texas units include Padre Island National Seashore, San Antonio Missions, Lyndon B. Johnson, Amistad NRA, Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River, Chamizal, and Lake Meredith. Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), El Paso (ELP), and Midland-Odessa (MAF) anchor different parts of the network. Big Bend's practical visiting window is late October through March: the desert is much too hot from May through September. Guadalupe Mountains is workable year-round with cooler temperatures at elevation. Padre Island and the San Antonio Missions cluster handle visits across the calendar, with summer Gulf humidity the dominant constraint. The Trans-Pecos parks (Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains) sit far enough from any major airport that most visitors arrive after a four-to-six-hour drive from El Paso or Midland.

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Texas map with place names

Texas National Parks map: labeled satellite map, showing 2 locations: Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains
Texas's 2 designated National Parks. Dots mark general locations, not entrances. This map does not show every NPS source record in the directory below. Map: National Sites Guide, CC BY 4.0.

Customize or download the Texas map. Change the names, pins and background, or download a ready-made PNG or SVG.

NPS source records in Texas.

Texas has 18 records in our combined NPS metadata and visitor-statistics registry: 3 National Historic Trails · 3 National Historical Parks · 2 National Monuments · 2 National Recreation Areas · 2 National Parks · 2 National Historic Sites · 1 National Preserve · 1 National Memorial · 1 National Seashore · 1 Wild & Scenic River. This is a source-record count, not the Park Service's official system-unit census. Combined 5-year-average annual visits: 5,447,368 (multi-state units count their full visits in every state they touch, see methodology). The most-visited record is San Antonio Missions National Historical Park at about 1.32M annual visits.

Map of the broader NPS source-record directory
Every National Park Service site in Texas, mapped. Each glowing marker is one site, placed at its real coordinates and colored by type. Select a marker for its yearly visits and a link, or use the filters to show or hide a group.
National Park Service sites in Texas, mapped Interactive map of Texas showing the location of 18 National Park Service sites, colored by type: national parks, monuments and memorials, historic sites, recreation areas and seashores, rivers, trails and parkways, and other sites. It includes the National Parks Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park. Each site is also listed with its yearly visits in the table below the map. 2 2

Marker positions are each unit's official NPS coordinates. State outline: U.S. Census cartographic boundary (public domain). Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

UnitDesignation5-yr avg visitsBusiest month
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park National Historical ParkSAAN 1,317,241 March
Lake Meredith National Recreation Area National Recreation AreaLAMR 1,230,442 June
Amistad National Recreation Area National Recreation AreaAMIS 881,500 May
Padre Island National Seashore National SeashorePAIS 557,623 July
Big Bend National Park National ParkBIBE 546,804 March
Big Thicket National Preserve National PreserveBITH 266,110 August
Guadalupe Mountains National Park National ParkGUMO 224,635 March
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park National Historical ParkPAAL 166,610 February
Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park National Historical ParkLYJO 99,571 April
Waco Mammoth National Monument National MonumentWACO 94,268 March
Fort Davis National Historic Site National Historic SiteFODA 42,377 March
Chamizal National Memorial National MemorialCHAM 12,028 October
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument National MonumentALFL 7,933 May
Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River Wild & Scenic RiverRIGR 226 March
Blackwell School National Historic Site National Historic SiteBLSC — —
Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail National Historic TrailBUOV — —
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail National Historic TrailELCA — —
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail National Historic TrailELTE — —

Methodology

Rows come from our combined NPS metadata and Visitor Use Statistics registry, not the Park Service's official census of 433 managed system units. Per-record visit counts come from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; the "5-year average visits" column is the mean of 2021-2025 Recreation Visits. Multi-state records are listed under every state they touch, and their full visit total appears in each state. Official National Park counts use the central 63-park classification rather than the source designation label alone. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-09-10