Rio Grande and Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas
© Grant Ordelheide/Tandem Stills + Motio
This national park turns 75. A big birthday for Big Bend
Seventy-five years ago today, on June 12, 1944, Big Bend officially became a US national park. The park, which covers 324,000 hectares in West Texas, along the Mexico border, contains mountain, river, and desert ecosystems, including the largest protected area of the Chihuahuan Desert in the United States. But the ‘big’ doesn't stop there. Big Bend is home to 1,200 species of plants, over 450 species of birds, 75 species of mammals, and 56 species of reptiles. (We're not sure how many of those are snakes, if you're wondering.) Because of its remote location, Big Bend also has among the darkest skies ever measured in the contiguous US. So tonight, the only light you'll likely see is the glow from 75 birthday candles - and a few million stars.
Related Images
Sunset at Counts Point in West MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia
Ysios Winery in La Rioja, Spain
The village of Aguerd Oudad and the larger town of Tafraout in Morocco
Mua Caves in the Ninh Bình province of Vietnam
Firefall at Horsetail Fall, Yosemite National Park, California
Wildflowers in bloom at Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona
Bath, Somerset, England
The National Wallace Monument overlooking Stirling in Scotland
Bing Today Images
