Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site

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What's a Hueco? Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site

"Huecos" (pronounced way-co's) are large natural rock basins that have furnished a supply of trapped rain water to dwellers and travelers in this arid region of west Texas for millennia.  Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site, is located 32 miles northeast of El Paso in El Paso County. It offers great hiking, birding, rock art and world-class bouldering opportunity.  

Because of the special nature of the park's attributes, admission is limited to protect it from "being loved to death."  Please contact the park or park information (1-800-792-1112-Option 3) for details.  

The park has an incredible history.  TPWD's website says, "A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the "tanks." From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route. "

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Rock Art and Beauty at Hueco Tanks

 

Hueco Tanks' rock art sets it apart from other public land in our region, in that spectacular and fragile rock art is visible to visitors.  Over 3000 images are located in the park, the earliest put there by hunters and gatherers known as Archaic Indians.  The Indians filled the hidden and secret places in the rocks with sacred paintings depicting their beliefs and the world around them. 

To learn more about the rock art in the park, click here to download a 3.79 MG guide.

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