The West Texas Town of El Paso

As a kid growing up in Houston, I never even got close to El Paso. I like to think that Texans have a special aptitude for long stints on the road. But at 11 hours away from home, a trip to El Paso never entered my family’s mind. I’ve driven to the Big Bend region more than a dozen times now that I live in Austin. Still, El Paso has always loomed just a few too many hours away. After finally visiting the city for the first time this past spring, I regret not making the trip sooner.

I was in El Paso for about four days, trailing through the city on a tour bus with a group of colleagues. Our guides were thorough. We started with a drive up to Franklin Mountains State Park, where we had views over the vast sprawl of colorful buildings that make up El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. We visited several of the city’s museums, both old and new, wandered through a handful of ornate missions, and heard the music from a historic pipe organ fill every nook and cranny of the Plaza Theatre. We walked through the Municipal Rose Gardens, which were blooming with color. Each time we descended from our bus, I was surprised to find we were still in the same city. If Texas is diverse, El Paso is even more so—no two places we visited were alike.

And that’s to speak only of what I was able to see. Over lunch one afternoon, a colleague mentioned that he wanted to break off to visit Rosa’s Cantina—not a stop on our tour, but certainly a must-see for any self-respecting Marty Robbins fan (no matter what you believe about whether the song or the restaurant came first). On our last evening, I had some of the best tacos of my life at Taconeta, a multi-time James Beard finalist that served me some much-needed vegetables after a week of eating as many chilaquiles as I could get my hands on. Washing them down with a margarita may have nullified the effects, but what are vacations for if not a little indulgence?

El Paso may not exactly be a weekend trip or quick pit stop for most of the state, but that’s a good thing. The city warrants its own itinerary. I’m already making a list of what to see when I go back. —Hannah Smothers, Audience Engagement Editor, Texas Highways