TEXAS GEMS

Texas offers a diverse range of popular destinations, including the vibrant cities of Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, along with natural wonders like Big Bend National Park and the beaches of South Padre Island and Galveston. But what about those places that aren't necessarily on everybody's list?

TEXAS GEMS

Waco Mammoth National Monument

Since the discovery of the site in 1978, museum staff, students and volunteers have spent thousands of hours excavating and working to preserve the fossil material. While the remains excavated through 1990 are now housed at Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex, most of the fossil specimens excavated since then remain in situ (still in their original position within the bone bed). These specimens have been protected in recent years by a climate-controlled Dig Shelter, allowing for both public viewing and further scientific study.

Waco Mammoth National Monument

Waco Mammoth National Monument

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FUNERAL HISTORY

Discover America’s largest collection of authentic historical funeral service items in 19 permanent exhibits. Learn about hearses through history, caskets and coffins, plus the funerals of Presidents, Popes and celebrities and the history of embalming and cremation while you witness the cultural heritage of the funeral service industry and its time-honored tradition of compassion.

National Museum of Funeral History

National Museum of Funeral History

FT WORTH WATER GARDENS

The urban park is frequently billed as a "cooling oasis in the concrete jungle" of downtown. Its focal points are three pools of water and a terraced knoll.The quiet, blue meditation pool is encircled with cypress trees and towering walls covered by a plane of water that cascades almost 90 degrees down to the sunken blue water feature. The aerating pool features multiple illuminated spray fountains under a canopy of large oak trees. The main attraction of the Water Gardens is the active pool, which has water cascading 38 feet down terraces and steps into a small pool at the bottom.

FT WORTH WATER GARDENS

FT WORTH WATER GARDENS

LONGHORN CAVERN STATE PARK

In the 1930s, scientists made an amazing discovery: prehistoric Texans used Longhorn Cavern as a “trap cave.” Much like a buffalo jump, hunters would drive animals over the cavern’s large opening and then climb down to harvest the meat, hides, bones, and other valuable parts. Among the remains found were bones of mastodon, bison, grizzly bear, and deer. Additionally, certain areas of the cavern were used to harvest chert (flint) for tools and weapons. This native use of the cavern persisted through the Comanche era and into the early Texas settlement period.

LONGHORN CAVERN STATE PARK

LONGHORN CAVERN STATE PARK

NATURAL BRIDGE WILDLIFE RANCH

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is an African Safari, Texas-Style. View and feed more than 700 animals representing over 45 species from all over the world in the comfort of your own car. Since 1984, 450 acres of rolling hills, creek beds, and magnificent oak trees that make up the safari drive-thru in the scenic Texas Hill Country has been open to the public. Additionally, the Walk-A-Bout area features several bird and primate species, a family of giraffes, the Safari Camp Grill, and the Safari Trading Post gift shop. The Texas Land Heritage Property, recognized and certified by the State of Texas for being used for agriculture by the same family for over 100 years, is proudly diversified over generations into a source of education and conservation of endangered and threatened species.

NATURAL BRIDGE WILDLIFE RANCH

NATURAL BRIDGE WILDLIFE RANCH

BRACKEN CAVE PRESERVE

Bracken Cave, on the northern outskirts of San Antonio, is home to the world’s largest bat colony, with more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats. It is a key maternity site for this species, and females congregate there each year to give birth and rear their young. Mexican free-tailed bats are an essential predator of corn earworm moths and other crop pests, and the Bracken colony alone is estimated to consume over 100 tons of these moths every summer night.

BRACKEN BAT CAVE

BRACKEN BAT CAVE

WORLD BIRDING CENTER

The World Birding Center is the official title given to a combined nine parks and nature preserves in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas managed by a partnership of the Texas Park and Wildlife Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the local communities in which the parks reside. The stated mission of the World Birding Center is to "protect native habitat while increasing the understanding and appreciation of the birds and wildlife", with an additional emphasis on promoting local economic development through ecotourism. Encompassing over 10,000 acres of preserved land extending along a 120-mile river corridor between Roma TX, and South Padre Island, the park system hosts a large amount of native biodiversity with over 500 recorded species of birds, and serves as potential habitat for locally endangered wild cat species, as well as sanctuary for much of the other flora and fauna of the last remaining native Tamaulipan brushland.

WORLD BIRDING CENTER

WORLD BIRDING CENTER

And finally!

"Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." Ibn Battuta

• Waco Mammoth National Monument
• National Museum of Funeral History
• Fort Worth Water Gardens
• Longhorn Cavern State Park
• Natural Bridge Wildlife Park
• Bracken Cave Preserve
• World Birding Center

Pick a spot and go!