Walking the Royal Road on El Paso’s Mission Trail

Nine miles of Socorro Road, from Ysleta through Socorro to San Elizario, follow a stretch of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the old royal road that carried people, goods and faith up the river for more than two centuries. The Ysleta mission, founded by the Tigua people in 1682, is counted among the oldest continuously active parishes in the country, and the corridor holds three landmarks on the National Register.

This year the trail has been gathering people again. Visit El Paso and El Paso County offered free guided bus tours of the Mission Valley this summer and fall, while the county rolled out grants to help small businesses along the corridor. At Los Portales Museum in San Elizario, an exhibit tells of Crypto-Judaic families who traveled the Camino Real, one more thread in a borderland woven from many peoples. The volunteer-run El Paso Mission Trail Association keeps the visitor center open every day of the week.

Sources: El Paso offers free bus tour of 300-year-old Mission Trail (Hoodline) · First Fridays on the El Paso Mission Trail (Texas Highways) · San Elizario resolution on the El Paso Mission Trail