River Park Trail. Photo by Destination El Paso

Walk a portion of the River Park Trail from Country Club Rd. to Artcraft and back. Join Miguel Fraga of Creosote Collaborative, historian Bernie Sargent, biologist and President of the El Paso-Trans Pecos Audubon Society, Scott Cutler, and Jana Renner, Program Officer with the Paso del Norte Community Foundation. The river will be running and the trail provides vistas of the Franklin Mountains and the Rio Grande River. During this quiet and soothing walk, you will learn about the development of this trail, the history of the area beginning with the Spanish conquistadors, and you can identify some of the birds of the Rio Grande.

Bring plenty of water (2 liters), wear sunscreen and/or a hat. Use good walking shoes. Bring a pair of binoculars if you have them. Bring a mask. Hand sanitizer will be available. This is approximately a 5-miles roundtrip so come prepared.

You can park at the shopping center where Yamaha and Kawasaki stores are, 950 Livingston Dr., Santa Teresa, NM. (MAP)

Check the weather forecast.

This is approximately a 5-miles roundtrip walk. If you prefer to just walk to Artcraft (2.5-miles), you can do that by parking your car on that side and carpooling to Country Club Rd. There is no parking exactly at Artcraft and the River Park Trail. Follow these directions to parking: Drive past Artcraft to Borderland and make a left. The first stop sign that you come to is Strahan. Turn left there. Drive to the Artcraft overpass. There is plenty of room for parking there. Then, walk along and past the Hindu Temple. You will be on an irrigation utility road. You will see an irrigation gate. Walk across that to the levee side and top the levee. To your left is a naturally created “ramp” that easily slopes down to the river walk. (MAP)

For more information, contact Jim Tolbert, diegotolbert@gmail.com or 915-525-7364.