Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Step1
Visit the National Border Patrol Museum for an intriguing one-of-a-kind stop, regardless of your stance on immigration issues. Journals of Mexican immigrants, aircraft formerly used for patrol and even tributes to canines used for border security are among the small delights.
Step2
Check out El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery. This might seem like an odd way to kill some time, but it is among the city’s most visited sites and a true slice of the Southwest’s past. Among the highlights are a Chinese section and the tombstone of John Wesley Hardin, a notorious gunslinger who was killed in a downtown saloon in 1895.
Step3
Saddle up for a boisterous night out by heading to Cincinnati Street, particularly popular with the college crowd and twenty-somethings. Geo Geske is a hip hangout serving a mean martini, while Crawdaddy’s appeals to a more boisterous bunch.
Step4
Visit the relatively small but high-quality El Paso Zoo, with a global range of wild things ranging from the Mexican wolves and spider monkeys of the Americas to the Malaysian tapirs and the highly endangered Amur leopards of Asia.
Step5
Set aside a few hours for the El Paso Museum of Art, which has an impressive gallery of Mexican art and is an excellent place to escape from the sun on a hot day. Located at the Arts Festival Plaza, the museum also showcases several other collections, including European creations from the 1600s through the 1800s.
Step6
Relish some of the most mouth-watering Tex-Mex treats you’ll ever taste at the L&J Café on East Missouri. This unpretentious, often noisy El Paso institution—dating back to 1927—serves the perfect food to make your taste buds come alive and plenty of beer and cold drinks to counterbalance the spicier plates.
Step7
Take the 15-minute drive to Franklin Mountains State Park for an amazing adventure, where more than 100 miles of hiking trails, countless cacti and a wealth of wildlife provide a quintessential taste of the Southwest’s rugged outdoors. If sweeping vistas are what you’re seeking, ride the Wyler Aerial Tramway to the top of Ranger Peak and soak in the surrounding areas.
