A—The convergence of desert, mountain, and river ecosystems in Big Bend National Park supports a remarkable diversity of life and provides abundant opportunities to experience and learn about the natural world.
B—Big Bend’s rugged and remote wilderness, spectacular river canyons, vast expanses, panoramic vistas, dark night skies, and proximity to Mexico provide outstanding recreational opportunities, and inspire wonder, reflection, and rejuvenation.
C—For thousands of years, the Big Bend region has been a focus of human activity—bringing people together from all directions, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in conflict.
D—Survival strategies and adaptations of living things in the Chihuahuan Desert are as wondrous as the environment is extreme—often defying our expectations about the ability of life to thrive in such conditions.
E—Abundant fossils in Big Bend National Park, including some found nowhere else in the world, record the existence and demise of dinosaurs and the flourishing of mammals, enabling us to ponder evolution and our own impermanence in the world.
F—Diverse, well-exposed, and accessible geologic features enable us to learn about the processes that shaped, and continue to shape, the Earth and influence its inhabitants.