The Scenic Drive Overlook at Murchison Rogers Park, high on the Franklin Mountains above downtown El Paso — with a sweeping view over El Paso, the Rio Grande, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The addressable start.
Welcome to El Paso, and to one of the great views in all of the Southwest — and welcome aboard. I'm Ranger Quinn, and I'll drive you across this remarkable border city and up over its mountains.
Walk to the rail of the overlook here and just take in what's in front of you, because you are looking at something you can see almost nowhere else in America: two entire countries at once. That enormous sea of city lights and streets and rooftops spreading out below and beyond you is not one city but two — El Paso, Texas, on this side, and its twin, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on the far side, together well over two million people, one of the great cities of the whole border. And running between them, that thread you can trace, is the Rio Grande — the river that is the international boundary, the line between the United States and Mexico. Two cities, two nations, three states — Texas, New Mexico just west, and Chihuahua across the river — all in one glance from this rail. It is a genuinely moving thing to see.
And it's all here because of the mountains behind you and the gap in them, which Boone will explain. Here's the plan: we'll leave this overlook, drive north along the foot of these Franklin Mountains, and then climb up and right over them on a spectacular mountain road, down into the far side of the city. When you stop and shut the engine off, the tour pauses; tap play to pick it up. So drink in this two-nations view a good long while — then let's drive the pass. Roll on.
Photo: Nick Amoscato · CC BY 2.0
