10 best things to do in Texas

05.10.2023 - 13:17 / nationalgeographic.com

With mountains in west Texas, beaches along its Gulf Coast, and the Hill Country at its heart, the Lone Star State covers such varied terrain that sometimes it feels like a country all its own. And it was, from 1836 until 1845. Today visitors flock to America’s second-largest state to learn about its fight for independence, spot neotropical birds, chow down on barbecue or Tex-Mex food, or hike mountains and deserts.

Here are the best ways to experience it.

San Antonio’s Alamo was built as a Spanish colonial mission in 1718. But it is best known as the site of an 1836 battle that saw the Mexican army defeat a band of mostly American upstarts shortly before Texas became an independent republic. Take a guided tour of the original stone church or visit the new 24,000-square-foot museum holding weapons linked to Davy Crockett and Mexican general Santa Ana, plus a diorama of the bloody conflict.

(Remember the Alamo? A battle brews in Texas over history versus lore.)

Named for a large bend in the Rio Grande River, Big Bendspans 801,163 acres of desert and mountains in the wilds of West Texas. Two hundred miles of hiking trails crisscross its desert flats, sky islands, and riverside canyons. “It’s such a big vast space, the only real way to get into the corners, crooks, and crannies of it is to hike,” says wilderness guide and filmmaker Austin Alvarado. The iconic South Rim Trail is a 12.7-mile loop to the top of the Chisos Mountains, where the desert sprawls out below like miles of rumpled elephant hide.

The cattle drives of the late 19th century made Texas cowboys famous, but the tradition dates back to the Spanish vaqueros who herded cattle in the region in the 1590s. Modern cowboys and cowgirls rope calves and cling to bucking bulls at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeoeach January, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo in February, or the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and Rodeo Austin in March.

Small-town competitions have fans, too. “You interact with contestants, pet their horses, and get more of what rodeo is all about,” says Megan Bruinsma, co-producer of Crider’s Rodeo, held on summer Saturday nights in tiny Hunt (about 77 miles west of San Antonio). Afterward, there’s live music at the adjacent dance hall.

(See what cowboys looked like a century ago.)

Revisit the 1960s and 1970s heyday of lunar landings and satellite launches via a tram tour around the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Highlights include vintage space suits, lunar modules, and Mission Control, with the consoles engineers used to monitor Apollo and space shuttle missions. Learn about more recent space travel at a new permanent exhibit about Artemis, the new U.S. space program.

(These places across the U.S. let you watch a