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Home , Big Bend National Park

GENERAL INFORMATION Accommodations, m and miscellaneous services are NaUonal packs offer a wide range of special activities provided within many Service areas for visitors. In many parks, rangers give evening by concessioners. Demand often exceeds NATIONAL PARKS availability during the heaviest months of travel. It programs in main camping areas at outdoor am­ is advisable to make reservations well in advance. phitheaters or around a campfire. These programs Where accommodations are not provided within may be talks illustrated with slides, demonstrations, IN the park, they are usually available in nearby Tlie Southwest Region of the National or movies. A program may touch on any aspect of communities. Park Service consists of 39 park units within the park—its wildlife, its plant life, its geology, its tlie states of , Arkansas, Oklahoma, wilderness, its past, present, or future. During the Campgrounds are maintained in many Louisiana, Texas, and northeastern Arizona. day. parks also may offer other activities, such as areas of the National Park System. Many Tlie variety of sites conveys a sense of visiting guided hikes, nature walks, and boat trips, tours of parks charge fees at some or all of their camping historical sites, slide shows, films, demonstrations several different countries. One can chart a areas. Fees range from $3-$15 per night per and talks. Some parks have special programs for journey through high , ancient Indian campsite in tent and recreational vehicle children. Schedules of activities are posted at ruins, old Spanish missions, the French campgrounds. Fees may be higher in group visitor centers and often at camping areas. Quarter of New Orleans, old military forts- campsites The Golden Age and Golden Access circa early frontier and civil war days, a Passports reduce the price of staying in campgrounds iyj>\ Entrance fees are charged at many parks. seashore of endlessly shifting dunes, and a by 50 percent. These price reductions do not apply %^f A single-visit entrance fee ranges from $3- cave that takes you into the mysterious world to campgrounds run by concessioners who operate $10 for each private, non-commercial passenger of inner earth. Walk through unique and some camping areas in the parks. vehicle. If you plan to travel to several national exquisite deposits of time, natural phenomenon parks, you may want to purchase a Most campsites are available on a first-come, first- and let your imagination visualize living Passport This annual entrance permit sells for civilizations preceding ours by thousands of $25 and permits entrance into all national parks. served basis, but many sites are available by Also available are park-specific annual passes that reservation. Depending on the camping area, years. Take time to explore, to reflect, to sell for $10 or $15, depending on the park. These reservations may be made with a park conces­ absorb the bombardment of color, sound and passes are also good for one calendar year. Both sioner, through the Ticketron Reservation System, sensation in YOUR national parks. the Golden Eagle and park-specific passes can be or, in some cases, with the park directly. Ticketron purchased at national parks where entrance fees reservations can be made by stopping by in person are charged. Two other permits—the Golden Age at any of the many Ticketron outlets located Passport and Golden Access Passport— allow free throughout the United States or at the national enhy into the national parks. The Golden Age parks on the Ticketron Reservation System Passport is a life-time entrance permit issued Southwest Regional Director to any United States citizen or permanent resident In many parks, modifications have been made age 62 or older. To receive this permit, you must in camping areas to make them more acces­ present proof of age. such as a driver's license, or sible to disabled persons, especially wheelchair- sign an affidavit attesting to one's eligibility. A users or others who have difficulty walking. The Golden Access Passport is issued free to blind or extent of modification varies from park to park and permanently disabled persons. Applicants must from camping area to camping area. For further information contact: present proof of disability or sign an aflidavit attest­ Southwest Region. ing to eligibility for receiving benefits under federal P.O. Box 728. Santa Fe. NM 87504-0728 law The Golden Age and Access Passports are 505/988-6012 issued in parks where entrance fees, camping fees, or other recreation use fees are charged All four types of passes allow not only the I mlder but persons SOUTHWEST REGION traveling in the same private, noncommercial DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR vi hir.le to ei iter I.I in pai f s li < ie Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument with an amazing diversity of plants and animals. This interest are McKillrick Canyon, a fragile riparian Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site c/o Lake Meredith is nature at its richest, whether it be birds and but­ environment, and Guadalupe Peak, die highest in Texas. c/o Southwest Region P.O. Box 1438 terflies flickering through forest dimness, riots of National Park Service Fritch, TX 79036 wildflowers, or a raccoon investigating the water's Lake Meredith National Recreation Area P.O. Box 728 806/857-3151 edge. The prcscrye lias been designated a "Man and P.O. Box 143B Santa Fe. NM 87504-0728 the Biosphere" by the United Nations Educational, Fritch, Texas 79036 505/988-6340 Many thousands of years ago Native Americans dis­ Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 806/957-3151 covered the Alibates flint deposits exposed on the It contains (lie silo of the first major battle in the hillside over wliat is now Lake Meredith. This lonely Chamizal National Memorial This 50,000-acre outdoor recreation area was estab­ Mexican-American War. lire battle was fought on hillside became the center of a prehistoric quarrying 800 South San Murrial lished for its natural, cultural, scientific and recreation May 8, 1846, and represents the first battle of die "industry." This superb, beautifully colored flint was El Paso, TX 77705 significance to the Texas Panhandle Region. It's campaign in northeast Mexico led by General used to make stone knives, projectile points, and other 915/532-7273 (Dial 101) 21,000-acre top quality reservoir provides a scenic Zachary Taylor. Historical markers are located at the tools archeologists find throughout the southwest. outdoor recreation experience. The area also includes junction of state highways 1847 and 511. Tliere is no The Memorial commemorates the Chamizal Conven­ 1,200 species of plant life, 200 species of birds, 33 site access at lliis time and tliere are no public facilities. Amistad National Recreation Area tion of 1963 which resolved a conflict of nearly a mammals, 3 endangered species, and just over 400 P.O. Box 420367 century between Mexico and the United States documented archeological sites. Wild and Scenic River Del Rio, TX 78842-0367 regarding a land ownership dispute which poisoned c/o National Park 512/775-7491 international relations. An historical museum and Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park Big Bend National Park, TX 79835 films tell die history of die international border. Mul­ P.O. Box 329 915/477-2251 Amistad "friendship" is where die United Stales and ticultural programs are provided weekly in the small Johnson City. TX 78636 Mexico cooperated to build Amistad Dam on the Rio dicater, outdoor amphitheater and die Lieuzode Char­ 512/868-7128 It's a I9l.2-niile strip on die American shore of lire Grande in 1969. A lake, with a 850-mile shoreline, ms (Charreada arena). Rio Grande in the Chihuahuan that protects the w.is created that today provides a sunny playground Visit die Texas Hill Country where Lyndon Baines river. It begins in Big Bend National Park and con­ of boating and fishing for recreation enthusiasts from tinues downstream to the Terrell-Val Verde County line. Fort Davie National Historic Site Johnson, 36th President of the United States, was torn Mexico and the United States. P.O. Box 1456 and grew up. Preserved here are his Birthplace, Fort Davis, TX 79734 Boyhood Home, die LBJ and his pioneer San Antonio Missions Big Bend National Park 915/426-3225 ancestors' ranch headquarters. President Jolinson National Historical Parh Big Bend National Park, Texas 79834 returned here often during his 37 years of public 2202 Roosevelt Avenue 915/477-2251 It was a key post in die defense system, service to rest and enjoy the place he called his home, San Antonio, TX 78210 guarding immigrants and tradesmen on the San the "Texas White House." 512/229-5701 One of the great national parks, Big trend, is where Antonio-El Paso Road. Fort Davis was manned by the Rio Grande makes the "big bend" into Mexico and black troojis for many of the years it was active. These One of the principal institutions of settlement on turns north again. Here is the , troops, called "Buffalo Soldiers" because of their 's northern frontier—four Spanish Colonial vast, remote, stark, and beautiful. Desert mountains curly hair, fought with great distinction in the Indian Missions, Conccpcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada along with the Espada dam and aqueduct, two contrast with the Hals below, punctuated by abrupt Wars. Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of of the best preserved remains of the Spanish Colonial canyons of the Rio Grande. In addition to the stunning West Point, served at Fort Davis in the early 1880s. scenery, the park celebrates the unique culture of a irrigation system in the United Slates, are physical remote Ixrrderland. reminders of a glorious chafer in Spanish Colonial National Park Padre Island National Seashore history. All were crucial elements H.C. 60, Box 400 National Preserve 9405 South Padre Island Drive to Spanish settlement on the Texas Salt Flat, TX 79847-9400 Corpus Christi, TX 78418-5597 frontier. When Franciscan atiempts 3785 Milam 915/828-3251 Beaumont, Texas 77701 512/949-8173 to establish a chain of missions in East Texas in the laic 1600s failed, 409/839-2691 A mountain mass of Permian rises abruptly Noted for its wide sand beaches, excellent fishing, the Spanish Crown ordered the from the surrounding desert and contains one of the abundant bird and marine life, this barrier island missions transfeiTcd to the lush Early pioneers were in awe as they entered the dense most extensive reefs on record. Deep canyons stretches along the Gulf Coast for 67.5 miles. Padre valley of the San Antonio River in forest they called "The Big Thicket," where the cut through this exposed fossil reef and provide a rare Island is a playground and a place to see nature at its 1731, where they flourished until swamps of east Texas meet the plains Those who op|>orliiiiity for geological study. Special points of settled tliere creating the region's unique culture most wonderful secularization in 1824. found the "thicket" demanding, hut also rewarding