El Paso Has Beautiful, Creepy And Deadly Hiking Areas

Hiking in El Paso is awesome thanks to beautiful areas and stunning views. On the dark side, you can also find plane crash debris and, maybe, dead bodies.

Hiking in El Paso can be dangerous so, play it safe. Bring plenty of water, don't go during the hottest part of the day, dress accordingly, know your limitations, watch for snakes, etc, etc.

The usual safety precautions but there are other things you need to watch for that hikers elsewhere don't - plane crash wreckage, unexploded ordinance and dead bodies.

The first is kinda cool, in a spooky way while the 2nd is a long shot ... no pun intended ... but totally possible and the third, sadly, is a recent development.

Hike To A Crash Site

The story of the 1953 crash of a military B-36 bomber into the west side of the mountain during a winter storm is pretty well known but that crash is not the only one. Unfortunately, several military aircraft have hit the mountain and many have died. Hikers can view the crash sites via, various trails.

El Paso's Explosive Hike

The northeast side of the Franklin mountains is now, officially, a national park and is practically a "vacation in a box" for visitors. You have to be careful hiking there though because, decades ago, it was a military gunnery range.

The Army lobbed rockets and missiles at it for years and not all of them detonated on impact. There's no telling how many unexploded munitions are scattered throughout the range and buried by the (literal) sands of time. It's best you stay on the marked trails out there.

Dead Bodies In The Desert

Recent times have seen a major influx of illegal migrants flooding across the border and many don't make it. The border running through El Paso was recently named the deadliest sector of the border.

It's so bad that Batallion Search And Rescue, a local, volunteer group, regularly hikes portions of it looking for bodies so they can be collected and, hopefully, ID'd. Sadly, they don't typically get to people in time for "rescue" to be applicable.