City Spotlight: El Paso
Go as far west in Texas as you can and you’ll discover one of the 25 largest cities in the United States: El Paso, whose name is Spanish for “the pass.” Indeed, if you take a single step past the city limits northwest, you’ll be in New Mexico. Southwest, you’ll be in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. As the juncture of the Southwest, El Paso offers a rich blend of cuisine and scenery — and has been the epicenter of Southwestern culture for millennia.
Historic El Paso
The El Paso area has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years, as archaeologists have learned at Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site. The desert park is mostly rocky outcroppings covered in “huecos,” which are concave bowl-like cavities in the weathered granite formations. The huecos’ peculiar shape attracted traveling Native American tribes to the area for a couple of reasons. Primarily, the basins collected rainwater, which helped tribes irrigate and farm an otherwise arid landscape. But the smooth huecos also doubled as a canvas — thousands of pictographs and inscriptions can be found in the park, making it one of the largest galleries of Native American art in North America.
To this day, touches of Old West spirit and Native American heritage can be found everywhere in El Paso, from the artifacts in the downtown El Paso Museum of History to the countless iconic presidio churches around town. You can see them all by exploring the 400-year-old Historic Mission Trail, a nine-mile trail that takes explorers along a historic corridor between two of the oldest continuously operated missions in the United States.
Sabroso El Paso
As the epitome of Tex-Mex culture, El Paso is (of course) a mecca for foodies. If you ask a local where to find authentic Mexican food in town, they’ll probably recommend spinning in a circle and walking into whichever restaurant you’re facing when you collapse. That’s because pretty much all Mexican food is authentic here, and it would be impossible to recommend just one.
But if we had to pick a single Tex-Mex spot, the L & J Cafe is pretty much synonymous with El Paso. The little joint has been a fixture here since 1927, and you can tell it’s good because it’s constantly packed with locals and out-of-towners alike. The menu has every Tex-Mex staple you can imagine — red sauce enchiladas, taco and flauta platters, huevos rancheros all day, etc. — so there’s something for everyone. No matter what you get, be sure to slather it in their famous salsa (and snag a jar of it for home).
When you’re done in El Paso, head for one of these smaller (but no less exciting) towns of West Texas.
