On my way back to Colorado from Tucson through New Mexico, I made a brief detour into El Paso, Texas.  This is downtown El Paso.

El Paso, TX

I made a brief (40-mile total) detour to El Paso, Texas on the way back home to Colorado mainly to 1) get some authentic Mexican food for lunch and 2) be able to finally say I have stepped foot in Texas. For a border town, El Paso is not bad. It surprised me to see mountains around the town. It also surprised me to see that it was not quite as saturated with Mexican restaurants as I expected it to be (indeed, I saw much more American fast food restaurants). Downtown is supposed to be somewhat cosmopolitan; e.g., there are theatres and museums there. Since I stopped there only for a couple of hours (and was inside an excellent fine Mexican restaurant called Andale for half the time), that’s about all of the impressions I can give, but here are more photos.

On my way back to Colorado from Tucson through New Mexico, I made a brief detour into El Paso, Texas.  This is downtown El Paso.
On my way back to Colorado from Tucson through New Mexico, I made a brief detour into El Paso, Texas. This is downtown El Paso.
I was surprised to see that El Paso was surrounded by so many rocky mountains!
I was surprised to see that El Paso was surrounded by so many rocky mountains!
I had a very authentic Mexican lunch at Andale Fine Mexican Food.
I had a very authentic Mexican lunch at Andale Fine Mexican Food.
Outside of downtown were lots of strip malls and fast food restaurants -- especially near the University of Texas at El Paso -- but all in all this did not seem like a bad town.
Outside of downtown were lots of strip malls and fast food restaurants -- especially near the University of Texas at El Paso -- but all in all this did not seem like a bad town.
There are mountains here!
There are mountains here!