The Big Bend National Park is located in Texas, and was created in 1944. The park's name is derived from the greater curvature ("big bend") in the Rio Grande which forms the international border between Mexico and the United States more than 1,600 km and the park administers approximately one quarter of that boundary. Big Bend is not a simple park: it is a region bounded by the great bend of the Rio Grande, a rounded triangle over 19 000 km2.

Rio Grande Bend

Mountains, canyons, rivers and desert intersect in a land where a calm inland ocean once covered all. That ancient ocean bed was thrust upward by violent upheavals, its layers broken, faulted and folded like paper. It appears to be a desolate and silent world, but it’s much more than that — it’s also a place of lush grasses, dainty wildflowers and teeming wildlife.

Chihuauan Desert

Cerro Castellan at Chihuahuan Desert

Rio Grande, which separates the US from Mexico - Santa Elena Canyon - 1.500 feet high walls

Sunrise at Santa Elena Canyon

Sunset at Sta. Elena Canyon

Rio Grande riverbed with cracked mud .

Chisos Mountains

Sunset behind Chisos Mountains

Mountain lion

Big Bend is famous for its natural resources and spectacular geology. The park is home to more than 1,200 species of plants (including approximately 60 cacti species), 11 species of amphibians, 56 species of reptiles, 40 species of fish, 75 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and about 3,600 species of insects. The park boasts more types of birds, bats, and cacti than any other national park in the United States.

Mountain lion

The colared peccary

Coyote

Wild burros

Ringtail (Bassariscus astutus)

Chisos Mountains Cacti

Vermilion Flycatcher:

Mexican Bluejay

Vermillion Flycatcher

Road runner

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Audio: Ry Cooder – Paris, Texas