We were very sad to leave Big Bend Ranch State Park, but as always, ever ready for new adventures. The drive to El Paso was one of our longest and most desolate. We didn’t arrive in El Paso until after dark on Sunday January 17, coming in on I-10. I am not sure what we expected of El Paso. A sleepy border town? A medium sized city? To say we were shocked at the lighted evidence of humanity stretching out before us is quite an understatement. A quick google search revealed El Paso to be a city of about 700,000, with its sister city, Ciudad Juarez just to the south, with over 2.5 million inhabitants in the metro area. The Mexican valley was lit with single family homes for miles, and the El Paso skyline was illuminated by an enormous mountainside star.

We stayed in an adorable historic duplex and got out to walk in down-town, shop for cowboy attire, and even do a bit of mountain biking at the Billy Rogers Arroyo. This led up to some impressive views of the cities. 

The striking difference between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso was hard to ignore. The Mexican barrios appeared ready to slide down from their mountainside perches at any second. This is in contrast to the modern and safety-inspected US structures. A very obvious example of greener grass. Not there was much of that to see…as we headed off through west Texas to Arizona for even more adventure.