Guadalupe Mountains ranked as the 16th best national park to visit this year, and it has the fifth-most affordable vacation accommodations out of all the parks on the list. Nearby lodging costs about $62 per person per night, but campers can stay at one of the three developed campgrounds<\/a> at the park for as little as $20 per night.<\/p>\n Visitors can go hiking<\/a> and backpacking<\/a> across 80 miles of rugged trails, but don’t expect to take any vehicles far into the parkland. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is almost entirely road-free<\/a>, allowing for the protection of local wildlife and the preservation of the park’s beautiful scenery. <\/p>\n Travelers on the hunt for the perfect scenic drive can instead head over to Big Bend National Park, which ranked as the 26th best must-see national park in 2026. There are over 100 miles of paved roads around the park for exploration, as well as improved and primitive dirt roads.<\/p>\n The National Park Service (NPS) offers route recommendations specifically for day trippers.<\/p>\n “Big Bend is too big to see in a single day, but a great one-day trip to the park might include a trip down the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and a visit to the Chisos Basin,” the NPS website says. “The Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive<\/a> will give you fantastic views of the Chihuahuan Desert landscape and will lead you to the banks of the Rio Grande. There are scenic overlooks and exhibits along the way, and the short walks to Sam Nail Ranch and Homer Wilson Ranch and a visit to the Castolon Historic District<\/a> will give you a glimpse into Big Bend\u2019s past.”<\/p>\n Visitors who want to turn their day trips into overnight stays near the park can do so for about $96 per person per night, or they can camp on-site with nightly fees starting at $16. Travelers can additionally book a room at the Chisos Mountains Lodge<\/a> or Big Bend Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n A HomeToGo survey said about 40 percent of Americans are planning national park trips in 2026, with millennials and Gen Zers showing a higher interest in exploring the American wilderness.<\/p>\n “At HomeToGo, we believe vacation planning should be fun, but we know it\u2019s not always a walk in the park,” said spokesperson Eleanor Moody. “That\u2019s why this year\u2019s index ranks destinations based on affordability, crowd levels, and convenience in terms of nearby accommodation availability and ease of access, making it easier than ever for travelers to pinpoint an ideal destination based on what\u2019s most important to them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park out in far west Texas offer the best views…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,56,12042,6208,25910],"class_list":["post-239618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-houston","tag-the-woodlands","tag-travel","tag-vonlane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Big](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/big-bend-national-park.jpg\")