Barton Warnock Visitor Center — Attraction in Manuel Benavides

Too many visitors to Big Bend Ranch State Park skip the opportunity to walk through the Environmental Education Center located just behind the Barton Warnock Visitor Center. ⚠️ BIG MISTAKE!

If you have any interest at all in the distinctive flora (especially 🌵 cacti) of West Texas and the wider Chihuahua Desert — and who doesn't? — then you will surely enjoy a relaxed stroll through the carefully planted, clearly labelled, and well-maintained walkways and hillock behind the Center, where you can view close up a tremendous variety of local cactus, shrubbery, small trees and other plant life endemic to the whole region — all gathered together in this one compact, xeriscaped display.

Some of the less common plants displayed here you may otherwise never run across in an initial or even later visit to Big Bend — so see (and photograph) them here. Learn a few of their names so you can impress your friends when hiking through the parks.

Offering good views of the Lajitas area, the eastern end of the state park, and the adjacent Mexico border region, you may well fine yourself wanting to spend at least a...

We were wandering the area and saw this Welcome Center. It's run by the parks department and has an excellent little museum inside that gives a brief outline of the history of the area to include the forming of the rocks and dinosaurs and such in the area while also providing information about the natural wildlife and a history of the area and the individuals who have lived there. It was free and had air conditioning which is very very important when you happen to go visiting a place that's like 100° outside but has a feel like temperature of 114. Has a cute little gift shop at the parks department with some items that are related directly to the park and then of course your usual run-of-the-mill bug spray stuff like that. It was actually very clean and very well tended and the Personnel that we met and spoke with...

My son and I drove 10 hours and had planned a 22 mile back country hike at Big Bend State Park. This was our first time hiking in a desert environment. When we told our plans to the Ranger at the center, he gave us valuable information about the area and took the time to explain why an alternate trail would be better since water would be scarce on the original route. We decided to take his advice, and hiked and camped 2 nights in the back country and had a great time. We were able to find water sources and find shade which is valuable in this environment. If you plan to hike, definitely visit the center and...