Mission Trail, White Sands & Hueco Tanks

Three unhurried days covering the human and natural history of the El Paso region at a completely relaxed pace — the Spanish colonial missions on day one, White Sands National Park at sunset and overnight in Alamogordo on day two, and the Hueco Tanks pictographs on the return on day three. The three sites span 10,000 years of human presence in the Chihuahuan Desert: Hueco Tanks was a Paleo-Indian campsite before 8000 BCE, was actively used by Jornada Mogollon people 1000-1400 CE, and was an Apache water source until the late 19th century; White Sands was a missile test range and Cold War aerospace proving ground before it became a national park; the Mission Trail missions are 340-year-old institutions that are still actively used by the Tigua people and Lower Valley communities. The through-line is the Chihuahuan Desert and the Lower Rio Grande as the context for all three.