Franklin Mountains State Park, 3/16/2017

50. We initially had reserved a Scampsite here, but upon further research, and after our micro-managed experience at Hueco Tanks, we cancelled our camping reservation and got a hotel room instead.  The RV "sites" are just parking spaces in a lot, with a couple of picnic tables nearby.  We knew there wasn't any water or electricity, but there wasn't even a composting toilet nearby!  And, we would have been schlepping the dogs around with us in the truck while we did other things in El Paso, so we decided that air-conditioning for the dogs and proximal restroom facilities were more important than camping in a parking lot.  

However, we did do the biggest hike Franklin Mountains has to offer and it was amazing: North Franklin Peak.  It was almost 8 miles up and back, and about 2000 feet up in elevation.  The trail is about half big rocks, half gravel.  The big (melon-sized) rocks made for challenging hiking mentally, as we had to focus on where we were putting our feet so as to not turn an ankle.  The hike was just as exhausting mentally as it was physically.  The views along the way are spectacular and we did see some cool birds, including Eastern Bluebirds!  If you do this hike, start EARLY (before 9 a.m. would be ideal), bring lots more water than you think you'll need, snacks, and hiking poles.  And don't forget the sunscreen - there is no shade on any of these trails.  (If you bring dogs, bring water and snacks for them too.)

We started at the You Are Here, took the West Cottonwood Springs trail to Mundy's Gap trail, to the North Franklin Mountain trail.  

View of the west side of the mountains from a little ways up.  You can see the parking lot at the center right.

East side of the mountains, Gordie is interested. 

Aaron and Lulu at the Danger sign.  This is close to the boundary between Franklin Mountains State Park and Ft. Bliss.

Once upon a time, people drove to the top of the mountain.  This car didn't make it; looks like it rolled down.

Contrail shadows.

The last (gasp!) hill up to the top! 

The HAM radio tower at the top.  My dad, a retired geology professor at UTEP, said the Knapp brothers wanted to develop the top of the mountain, so had a bulldozer scrape off 5-10 feet of the peak to create the flat area.  The Knapps also operated the HAM radio and may have been responsible for the rolled car in a previous picture. 

I found an interesting timeline of Franklin Mountains history, particularly 1978-1979:

https://franklinmountains.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/1c-historical-timeline-for-castner_final-july-2015-final.pdf

Franklin Mountains State Park is in the middle of El Paso, which is the farthest western point in Texas.  El Paso is also the location of the end of the Rocky Mountains, a county seat, and home to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).  The UTEP campus is built in the architectural style of Bhutanese monasteries and is one of the most energy-efficient university campuses in the US.  Juarez, Mexico, is safe to visit again, and El Paso has a burgeoning craft beer scene that is pretty good.  There are tons of things to do in El Paso, I highly recommend stopping and staying a while (and not just because it's my hometown :-).