Franklin Mountains State Park, State park in El Paso, Texas, United States
Franklin Mountains State Park sits in the Franklin Mountains above El Paso and covers roughly 11,000 hectares of dry upland terrain with jagged summits and cactuses along steep paths. The terrain ranges from low slopes to high ridges, with juniper bushes and agaves growing between boulders.
Efforts to protect the Franklin Mountains began in 1925; after a developer built a road into them in 1979, the Wilderness Park Coalition persuaded the Texas Legislature to protect the range that year, though funding was barred. The property was acquired in 1981, a development plan followed in 1985, and the park opened in 1987. Its Precambrian rocks, the oldest in Texas, sit atop North Franklin Mountain.
The mountains take their name from nineteenth-century settlers, while hikers today still discover rock drawings and stone tools in different canyons. Many paths cross areas that served as hunting and gathering grounds before European arrivals reached the valley.
Visitors should come early in the morning or late in the afternoon, as midday heat in summer can become very strong. Main paths are marked, but some sections require sure footing on loose gravel and steep climbs.
The Precambrian rocks on North Franklin Mountain's summit are called the highest geological structure in Texas. From 1909 to 1915 the El Paso Tin Mining and Smelting Company ran a tin mine on the mountain's northeast slope, the only tin mine ever located in the U.S., and it lost money.
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