Texas Travel Guide
El Paso
El Paso is only half the story. Officially, it is the largest border town in the country but really it is just the US part of a much bigger town. The counterpart is Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican border town that joins El Paso to make a total metropolis of 2.5 million people. It is the border and the diversity it inevitably brings that defines El Paso. Rumour has it that when Wyatt Earp arrived in Wild West El Paso it was too Wild so he went straight back to Tombstone. The Softie!
El Paso lies at the western extreme of Texas, it has no oil and the climate is hardly suited to mass agriculture yet it is one of the oldest established towns in the USA. It's appeal initially lay in its proximity to the Rio Grande and a broad gap (the pass) that allowed peoples of all sorts, from natives to conquistadors, from Mexican Robber Barons to illegal migrant workers, to pass through.
The Mexican influence is all pervading, the main language is Spanish and 80% of the population are Hispanic. Despite the best efforts of the border patrols, there is a constant flow of traffic both human and contraband over the border. Ciudad Juarez has recently hit the headlines as being nothing more than a sweatshop supplying goods for the ever-open maw of the US markets.
El Paso really took off as a town with the arrival of the railroad in the 1880's; this led to it becoming a major railhead that brought a degree of prosperity with it.
Things To Do, Places To See
Not a lot is the honest truth! El Paso is not overloaded with premier attractions. It is a workaday town that works hard to shed its image as nothing more than a dusty border town, little better now than it was when gunslinger John Wesley Hardin lived here. However, it is not without its charm. There is the half-decent El Paso Museum of Art with exhibits of pre Columbian and Indian art. The Kress Collection displays pieces from the Italian Renaissance amongst various other works. The Downtown area has many fine old buildings that are still standing after nearly a century.
On the banks of the Rio Grande is the Chamizal National Monument, this attractive area of parkland celebrates the final settling of the many years of squabbling between the US and Mexico over the border.
El Paso could be seen as a base for exploring the nearby deserts and Mountains a land laden with ruined Missions, stunning landscapes, native American history and Wild West legend. You could take the Mission Trail or visit the Franklin Mountains State Park, which is full of hiking, biking, and climbing type activities and a number of basic campsites that support this visitor base.
A trip across the border is probably not to everyone's taste. It is said to be where the third world runs into the first, certainly the shopping on the Mexican side of the border is much cheaper.
Eating, Drinking and Sleeping
The food is solidly Mexican in the main although there are a few upmarket places offering more haute cuisine and a few steak houses.
The nightlife is uninspiring, there are clubs and bars but they don't rival their counterparts elsewhere in the state.
There are a number of decent places to stay in El Paso and prices are reasonable.
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