Travel & Outdoors

Down Mexico Way

“Mexico Mike” Nelson writes the book on seeing Mexico by automobile.

Down in Del Valle

In an affluent suburb of Monterrey, young Mexican professionals hunger for prestige and try to live like Americans.

Bear With Me

Black bears have returned to Big Bend National Park, and our author is determined to find one.

Tex Zen

When urban stress sets the nerves ajangle, it’s comforting to know there is a Japanese garden nearby.

Wet ‘n’ Wacky

From real river water to its playful German theme, Schlitterbahn’s totally tubular!

Secret Summer Places

Follow us for a great vacation, minus something all tourists can do without—crowds.

Mood Indigo

Head for the hills: Texas has a bumper crop of bluebonnets this year.

The Island in Winter

Discover the charms of Galveston off-season, when the only visitors are you, the gulls, and the ghosts.

Go Fish

See the Gulf Coast from the bottom up at Corpus Christi’s new underwater show.

High Country Haven

The Tetons are grander and Santa Fe is tonier, but no place is more apropos than Ruidoso.

The Battle for Barton Springs

A determined developer’s big plans for Austin’s cool, clear water hole is bringing out extremes on both sides.

The Lost Pyramids

For an adventurer in the Yucatán, suspicious bureaucrats and relentless pests stand in the way of tracking down a forgotten Mayan ruin.

Western Fling

With the cultural diversions of a big city and the country comforts of a small town, Fort Worth is the perfect place for a typically Texan weekend.

Red Beans and Blue Notes

When in New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival, do as the locals do: Search out the neighborhood restaurants and clubs.

Swamp Thing

Snapping turtles are cantankerous, grotesque, and savage. And those are just a few of the reasons I like them.

The Call of the Wildman

To find their true masculine selves, wildmen dance and sweat, bond and meditate, renounce their mothers and grunt, “Ho!” I thought, “Hmmm.”

The Bucks Stop Here

The troubled Parks and Wildlife Department is supposed to protect the state’s natural resources. Instead, it protects its friends and, above all, itself.

Wild Forever

Once the private preserve of an oil executive, the 300,000-acre Big Bend Ranch, with all its desert grandeur, has now entered the public domain.

So You’re Stuck at the Airport

Your jet’s lagging. You’re sick of reading and people-watching. Cheer up: just a gate away might be great chili, a shopping mall, or even a place to pray.

The Temple of Destiny

In downtown Mexico City are the ruins of the great Aztec pyramid, the site where one empire ended and a new world began.

The Perfect Hill Country Weekend

An excursion through the best part of Texas, featuring sleepy little towns, clear little streams, pluperfect biscuits, and two-headed goats.

My Favorite Place

What do the city of Lubbock, a defunct restaurant, and a submerged neighborhood have in common? They’re all places in somebody’s heart.

Chip Ahoy

A new gambling-cruise-ship enterprise out of Port Isabel makes it possible to spend an evening in a casino while going nowhere in the Gulf.

Superbonanza!

Look out, Waxahachie! Here come the Protonettes, the Big Bang Motel, and the Phil Gramm Institute

Making Waves

It’s cold and rainy; your stress level has reached an all-time high; your roof has sprung a leak. But you don’t have to sit still for this. Escape to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

They Sting. They Kill. They Destroy. They Mate in Midair. Nothing Can Stop . . . the Ants From Hell

Fire ants are on a relentless march across Texas, maiming, devouring, and stinging the living daylights out of everything in their path. We’ve tried to stop them, and it has only made them stronger.

Notes From the Underground

Seven Central Texas caves put on the summer’s best rock show.

The Meanest River

Yes, it’s muddy, it’s treacherous, and it smells bad enough to gag a skunk; but it’s also the only thing between us and Oklahoma.

Writing on the Rio

The only way to see Big Bend’s canyons is from the river, but that doesn’t mean you have to get wet, eat trail mix, or give up Bach.

Swimming to Oblivion

Marine scientists have struggled for ten years to establish a new colony of ridley sea turtles on South Padre Islands. All their efforts may have been in vain.

Funky Chickens

The prairie chickens in Texas’ vanishing grasslands are booming and boyish.

Who Can Stop the Killer Bees?

Experts predict the first swarms could cross the border next year. What happens then to Texas’ multimillion-dollar honey industry is anybody’s guess.

Paradise Mañana

If the brand-spanking new Mexican beach resort of Huatulco is what you’ve been waiting for, then keep waiting.

The National Tour of Texas

A glowing beacon near Haynesville; broomweed royalties in Foard County; Archer City’s decorated dump; curative waters and a grand hotel in Mineral Wells; faux Alamo in Farmersville.

The National Tour of Texas

Out itinerant reporter visits with a Lubbock man determined to preserve the American Way of Life; the doughty clan that brought beer to Levelland; a windy lady fascinated with the weather and a rusticated professor gone to seed.

The National Tour of Texas

In the Mesquite Kingdom, where the coyotes howl, the wind blows free at the MacArthur Academy of Freedom, an honest face gets you a phone and immigration throws mariachi parties.

The National Tour of Texas

In search of elusive Central Texas: along the Cold Beer trail, inside Killeen’s soldier shops, through the hills of Toy Texas, deep within a nameless cave.

Autumn Leaves

Turn off the AC, stop pretending you’re a reptile, welcome the whooping cranes back. It’s fall!

The National Tour of Texas

Across pastoral northeast Texas, where Baptists debate the niceties of immersion, truckers and hookers turn the airwaves blue, and bass have their private lives laid bare by electronic snooping.

Shark!

Three shark attacks on the Texas coast this summer are making swimmers edgy and chambers of commerce ask one question: what’s going on out there?

The National Tour of Texas

Tales of the Piney Woods: the original kinds of the forest, the Bright way to get a chicken in every pot, the gamble of today’s Tenaha. Plus: an unusual graveyard, a haunting ruin, a chilling church name.

The National Tour of Texas

Passing (slowly) through Kendleton. Then on to Houston, where student murals record the march of time and Vietnam vets gather; to a meal so good it’s kept under lock and key; and finally to the (formerly) Golden Triangle.

Hollywood on the Rio Grande

Brownsville has everything Mexico’s leading filmmaker could want—except visas.

Go Up, Young Man

These tall office towers, observatories, and revolving restaurants offer inspiring vies of Texas’ cityscapes.

The National Tour of Texas

Back from the Gulf and along its coastal bend, picture-book towns offer scenes that have nearly vanished from urban Texas, not to mention the most confusing sign, the best noontime stop, and the most Shakespearean site.

From the harsh landscape of the Permian Basin, whose residents find their faith in free enterprise tested by hard times; to the subtropical city of San Antonio, whose Hispanic citizens have gone gaga over Goyo-Goyo; into deepest South Texas, where the old times of the Parr machine are not forgotten.

All Aboard for Copper Canyon

Try North America’s best travel bargain—the Copper Canyon train ride. For $9 you can see Indians who run down deer on foot, Mennonites who speak German, and the most spectacular scenery in Mexico.

Travels through the Trans-Pecos—splendor in the Big Bend, the greening of the Alpine grasslands, today’s version of profitable ranching, escape from the rat race in South Brewster County, innkeeping Indians in Van Horn—to El Paso, way out on the edge of Texas.

Cabin Fever

Not in the mood for a plush vacation resort or the rigors of backpacking? Instead, try solitude and starry nights at one of these ten park hideaways.

¡Howdy, Señor!

Come to Monterrey, where you can find all the comforts of home: Pollo Frito Kentucky, Super Sietes, and a looming economic crisis.