Walk El Paso from downtown to the mountain
El Paso sits on the Rio Grande at the foot of the Franklin Mountains, with a downtown of old plazas and a scenic road along the mountainside. FOG keeps the map dark until you walk it, and the desert light makes walking here something else.
Downtown
San Jacinto Plaza is the main square downtown, with a sculpture of alligators that recalls the real ones once kept in a pond there. Around it, the downtown blocks have old hotels and theatres, including the Plaza Theatre, a restored 1930s movie palace.
The El Paso Museum of Art is free, and the Union Depot, a brick railway station, is a short walk west. South of downtown, El Segundo Barrio is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city.
The mountain
Scenic Drive runs along the southern end of the Franklin Mountains above the city, with viewpoints over El Paso, the Rio Grande and Ciudad Juarez beyond it. Murchison Park, along the road, is the classic lookout.
Franklin Mountains State Park, inside the city limits, is one of the largest urban parks in the country, with trails up rocky canyons. The University of Texas at El Paso campus, nearby, is built in a style borrowed from Bhutan.
Heat
El Paso is hot in summer and dry most of the year. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking, and winters are mild.
The downtown is compact, and Scenic Drive adds a strip along the mountain. The rest of the city spreads out across the desert.
Share the shape you walked
After a proper walk FOG can offer a walk card: the shape of the route you just covered in El Paso, ready to post as a square, a story or the bare shape. The lifetime card shows the area you have unfogged, the distance travelled and how much of the city you have lit.
It all runs on your phone with no account and no cloud. Choose miles in Settings, pick a fog colour (Midnight, Abyss, Violet, Ember or Slate) and a density, and walk. Exploring is free, and one purchase of FOG Unlimited opens every rank, every path and Google Timeline and GPX import.
Questions people actually ask
What is Scenic Drive in El Paso?
A road along the Franklin Mountains above the city, with viewpoints over El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.
Why does UTEP look Bhutanese?
Its buildings follow a style borrowed from Bhutan, chosen early in the campus history.
Is there a subscription?
No. Exploring is free and FOG Unlimited is a single purchase. There is never a subscription.
Start with a dark map.
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