The Mission Trail Ysleta Mission Socorro and Guadalupe Missions

Earlier this month I was in El Paso, TX, stuck at the airport waiting for my luggage to hopefully make the next flight. Having a few hours to kill, I wandered around until I found some local travel guides and maps. While El Paso doesn't offer the modern day excitement of my home town, Las Vegas, it does posses some interesting history and geography.

Originally present day El Paso was part of Spanish controlled New Mexico and never considered part of Texas until 1848. During the next two years battles were fought to claim the city as part of Texas, in order to take part in the lucrative Santa Fe trade route. The new state boundaries placing El Paso on the Texas side were drawn up in the Compromise of 1850.


Some of the places of interest nearby are:

• Big Bend National Park
  
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Lincoln National Forest
• White Sands National Monument
• Hueco Tanks State Park
• Ysleta Mission
• Socorro Mission
• San Elizario Chapel

I was already planning on visiting White Sands National Monument, but was unaware of the historic missions in the area. The airport had a handy little map that showed all of the missions on the trail, starting in El Paso, dipping into Mexico and ending in New Mexico. Not knowing the next time I'd make it out to this area, I decided to squeeze in some extra time for visiting the missions. The best information I found was a printed guide/map at the airport. I was able to find it online here as a PDF, but it appears to be an older version.

Here are a few websites that have an overview of some missions:

• El Paso's Mission Trail
• The El Paso Mission Trail Association

All in all it was a great trip and time well spent visiting the missions. Aside from their great architecture, they had great details as well. This image of a window is one of my favorites. You can see all of my photos from this trip on my flickr account.

Ysleta Mission Photos
Socorro and Guadalupe Mission Photos