Silver City to El Paso, Texas – 5 February 2023
We left New Mexico and started the long trek to Texas. Our last stop in New Mexico was Las Cruces, at a rest stop overlooking the city. On the edge of the rest stop, high up on the hill, was a gigantic Road Runner art sculpture. It was quite amazing as it was made entirely of recycled material. You could see white squashed shoes underneath forming the breast feathers and its eyes were made from Volkswagen headlights. The Road Runner was 20 feet tall and 40 feet long.
El Paso is known as the “sun city” because it has 302 days of sun a year. is a huge city, lots of freeways and lots of cars. As we entered El Paso we could see the fence separating Texas from Juarez, Mexico. Mission RV Park was stuck in the middle of an industrial area, just below a freeway. Not much walking around there for Jax but it did have a small dog park he could stretch his legs in.
We took a drive out to the Franklin State Park to do a hike but were unable to get in, as it was already 4pm. The Ranger suggested that we try the McKelligon Canyon. This was a steep walk along a nicely paved area alongside the road. The view of the surrounding mountains was amazing. At the top was an amphitheatre but we could not get in to see it as it was closed. On the way back down we were treated to equally stunning views of the mountains and the city below, as the sun set.
We decided to take the scenic drive across the top of El Paso so we could see both El Paso and Mexico at night. It didn’t disappoint. The views were spectacular – I would have loved to see it in the daylight as well.
Not in the mood for cooking, we decided to try the 5 star rated Mexican/Peruvian restaurant called Amar for supper. It met every expectation – food was quite delicious. I had a Huancaina truffle pasta with chicken and Derek a lomo soldato. The dessert consisted of a sticky pudding like corn cake with a side of what looked like corn but was in fact corn icecream. Yum!
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore El Paso further as we had some catching up of work to do and before we knew it, it was time to move on.
