Franklin Mountains - El Paso

Hi Blog!  Today is Wednesday.  We spent yesterday doing all sorts of chores and grocery shopping.  Today we finish up some more chores and then got out and about.  One cool thing about the city of El Paso is that it has a mountain range right in the middle of the city.

Franklin Mountain State Park is at an elevation of 5,426 feet.  It is the largest urban park in the nation lying completely within city limits, covering 24,247.56 acres (that's big).  The Franklin Mountains are 23 miles long and 3 miles wide and stretch from El Paso into New Mexico.  The mountains are the southernmost tip of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S.  I never would have figured we'd be hiking the Rocky Mountains while still in Texas!

Since we got a late start this morning, we picked two of the shorter trails.  In the mountains, shorter doesn't always mean easier.  Our first trail, Aztec Caves was only 1.2 miles, but it was all uphill.  Here is Kathy taking a breather admiring the view.

If you look really closely, you can see David standing by the cave opening.  Aztec Caves were never inhabitied by Aztecs, but the early settlers in the region noticed the cave drawings and just assumed the Aztecs made them.  The name stuck.

The caves were not very large.  In the first cave, the ceiling was covered with soot from numerous campfires over the centuries.  Because the lighting was bad, we couldn't find the cave drawings.  However, it was very easy to notice all the mountain lion prints in the fine dirt on the cave floor.  We decided not to stick around too long just in case the resident kitty came back.

From the cave, you could see the desert below.

Our next hike took us over to the Agave Loop, so named because of all the agave plants in this valley.

There's Dave standing way down the trail next to a boulder field.

On the way back down the mountain, we passed by the entrance to the old tin mine.

Dave was able to get the camera in a small opening so you can see how far back the mine shaft goes.

We hiked on a scree field all the way back to GW (Great White).  It felt really good to get inside the truck and turn the air conditioner on!