(all photos taken by my friend Jessica Fierro).
Monday, August 6, 2012
Place Post: Scenic Drive, El Paso, TX
A few weeks ago I visited my friend who lives in Juarez, Mexico for her birthday. While there I got to spend some time in El, Paso, Texas. I have not spent much time in the American Southwest and was excited to get to experience a completely different landscape. I was born and raised in Miami so my idea of a mountain is Mount Trashmore or a large hill at a local park, I had never really seen real mountains. I noticed while in El Paso how much the mountains played a huge role in the layout of the city and the landscaping. Since the area of El Paso is desert land, the ideal green "American Lawn" is not really a possibility. However, the residents of El Paso have used gravel and desert rocks to decorate their lawns and create their own kinds of lawns. On our way to the airport my friend took me to a beautiful lookout on Scenic Drive. Here one could not only look out at all of El Paso and the Franklin mountains, but you could also see Juarez, Mexico. While looking out at the majestic mountains I found myself in awe of them. The way the city is built around them, and how even the tallest building pales in comparison. To me, the mountains were a reminder that no matter how much man builds, the mountains will always be taller. The mountains reminded me of the majesty of nature and how humans must learn to live within the reign of nature. Scenic Drive showcased how the residents of El Paso were truly in awe of nature. There were many people coming out to enjoy the day taking pictures in front of the mountains and simply enjoying them. The vast expanse is what caught my attention. All you could see before you was mountains. It made me appreciate a different landscape and made me contemplate, What is behind those mountains? and How might the look be different if I was standing a top one of those mountains? The mountains stirred within me much contemplation about how mountains people adapt to the surroundings around them. I am sure to those who live in El Paso take the mountains for granted, but for me the view of the mountains from Scenic Drive were a spectacular and breathtaking. They defined a different aspect of the American Environment for me, an environment who's vast mountainous landscape causes us to constantly contemplate the beauty of nature.
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I have been to El Paso once. On the way there the environment is like a stereotype of the old American West: almost entirely baron land, straight road, and very little green plants or people. But the mountains that separate El Paso from Juarez seem like something that would more at place in a northern state. The fact that two places so close to each other can be so different is surprising to me.
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