Ranger Tales
El Paso & the Franklin Mountains
Driving tourWorks with CarPlay

El Paso & the Franklin Mountains

17 stops· 34 min· 28.2 mi· narrated by Ranger Quinn

🎧 Listen in the app

Buy the self-guided tour now, or get it in the app.

🎫 One-time purchase♾️ Yours forever — no expiry📡 Works fully offline🚗 Apple CarPlay
Highlights include
  • The Scenic Drive Overlook — Two Nations at a Glance
  • The Pass of the North
  • The River Between
  • The Revolution from the Rooftops
  • The Oldest Layers
  • The Gunfighter Who Came to Be a Lawyer
  • Where the Railroads Met
  • The Star on the Mountain
The tour

A drive through the Pass of the North — El Paso, Texas, the ancient crossroads where the Rio Grande splits a mountain range and two nations meet. Ranger Quinn starts you at the Scenic Drive Overlook, high on the flank of the Franklin Mountains, with one of the great views in the Southwest spread below you: the whole sprawling El Paso–Juárez metropolis, two cities and two countries, and the river that divides and joins them. Then he drives you north and up and over the Franklins themselves — the largest mountain range in an American city — on the soaring Transmountain road, through a cut in rock more than a billion years old. Ranger Boone Merrick rides along with the border's wild history: the pass that funneled four hundred years of travelers through one gap; Pancho Villa's revolution, watched by El Pasoans from their rooftops across the river; John Wesley Hardin, the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West, shot dead over a game of dice in an El Paso saloon; the giant star lit on the mountain as a sign of peace over two nations; and the cattle rustlers who gave Smuggler's Pass its name. Best in spring and fall. A tour of a place that is two cities, three states, and one remarkable pass.

The route

Driving route · 17 stops. Live GPS playback and turn-by-turn pins are in the app.

Every stop

What you'll see and hear

17 narrated stops along the way — waterfalls, overlooks, history, and Ranger Boone's campfire tales.

  1. The Scenic Drive Overlook — Two Nations at a Glance
    01

    🥾 The Scenic Drive Overlook — Two Nations at a Glance

    The Scenic Drive Overlook at Murchison Rogers Park, high on the Franklin Mountains above downtown El Paso — with a sweeping view over El Paso, the Rio Grande, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The addressable start.

    The Scenic Drive Overlook — Two Nations at a Glance guide →
  2. The Pass of the North
    02

    🔥 The Pass of the North

    Why El Paso exists at all — the Pass of the North, the natural gap where the Rio Grande cuts between two mountain ranges, funneling four hundred years and more of travelers through a single doorway.

    The Pass of the North guide →
  3. The River Between
    03

    🎧 The River Between

    Since you got that stunning two-nations view back at the overlook, let me tell you honestly and clearly about this border you're looking at, because it's easy to get wrong, and the truth of it is better than the headl…

    The River Between guide →
  4. The Revolution from the Rooftops
    04

    🔥 The Revolution from the Rooftops

    How El Pasoans in 1911 climbed onto their rooftops to watch Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution storm the city of Juárez, right across the river — a war for a front-row audience, and stray bullets that reached the…

    The Revolution from the Rooftops guide →
  5. The Oldest Layers
    05

    🎧 The Oldest Layers

    El Paso wears its Wild West railroad past on its sleeve, but underneath that is far older, deeper human history, and it's worth knowing as you drive, because it shapes the soul of the place. Long before Texas, before…

    The Oldest Layers guide →
  6. The Gunfighter Who Came to Be a Lawyer
    06

    🔥 The Gunfighter Who Came to Be a Lawyer

    John Wesley Hardin — reputedly the deadliest gunfighter of the Old West — who came to El Paso to practice law, and was shot dead over a game of dice in the Acme Saloon in 1895.

    The Gunfighter Who Came to Be a Lawyer guide →
  7. Where the Railroads Met
    07

    🎧 Where the Railroads Met

    As you drive along the foot of the mountains here, let me tell you how sleepy little El Paso exploded into a real city — because it happened almost overnight, and it happened on steel rails. For most of its history, E…

    Where the Railroads Met guide →
  8. The Star on the Mountain
    08

    🔥 The Star on the Mountain

    The giant illuminated star on the Franklin Mountains — first lit in 1940 as a sign of peace over the two cities and two nations, and shining over the border ever since.

    The Star on the Mountain guide →
  9. Over the Mountain — the Transmountain Road
    09

    🌲 Over the Mountain — the Transmountain Road

    The start of the climb over the Franklin Mountains on the Woodrow Bean Transmountain Drive — the road that crosses the largest mountain range within any American city, cut straight through billion-year-old rock.

    Over the Mountain — the Transmountain Road guide →
  10. The Chihuahuan Desert
    10

    🎧 The Chihuahuan Desert

    Look closely at the plants clinging to these rocky mountain slopes as you climb, because you're driving through the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest desert in North America, and it's full of toug…

    The Chihuahuan Desert guide →
  11. Cutting the Road Through the Mountain
    11

    🔥 Cutting the Road Through the Mountain

    How the Transmountain road you're driving was blasted straight through the Franklin Mountains in the 1960s — a colossal cut through solid rock that finally joined the two halves of a city split by a mountain range.

    Cutting the Road Through the Mountain guide →
  12. A Mountain Torn Loose
    12

    🎧 A Mountain Torn Loose

    As you climb this mountain, let me tell you what these Franklins actually are, because their story is written in the rock all around you, and it's a violent and ancient one. This whole region is being slowly, ceaseles…

    A Mountain Torn Loose guide →
  13. Smuggler's Pass — the Mile-High Crest
    13

    🌲 Smuggler's Pass — the Mile-High Crest

    Smuggler's Pass, the high crest of the Transmountain Drive at roughly a mile above the sea — the summit of the crossing, with grand views and a hard frontier history in its name.

    Smuggler's Pass — the Mile-High Crest guide →
  14. The Rustlers of Smuggler's Pass
    14

    🔥 The Rustlers of Smuggler's Pass

    How Smuggler's Pass earned its name — the frontier cattle rustlers who drove stolen herds through these mountains, and the Texas Ranger who died in a canyon here chasing them.

    The Rustlers of Smuggler's Pass guide →
  15. Fort Bliss — the Army in the Desert
    15

    🎧 Fort Bliss — the Army in the Desert

    Fort Bliss — one of the largest U.S. Army posts, over a million acres; the Army has been in El Paso since 1848.

    Fort Bliss — the Army in the Desert guide →
  16. The Castner Range Poppies
    16

    🌲 The Castner Range Poppies

    The Castner Range — saved from development and made a national monument in 2023 — and its rare spring super-bloom of gold poppies.

    The Castner Range Poppies guide →
  17. Down the Far Side
    17

    🌲 Down the Far Side

    The descent down the eastern face of the Franklins into northeast El Paso, past the wild Castner Range — the end of the crossing, and of the tour.

Plan your visit

Good to know

How long is the El Paso & the Franklin Mountains tour?
The tour has 17 stops over about 28.2 miles with roughly 34 min of narrated audio. You set the pace — pause, linger, or skip ahead anytime.
Do I need cell signal to use the tour?
No. Download the tour before you go and it works completely offline — the audio plays by GPS even with no bars, which is exactly where most park tours lose signal.
How does a self-guided audio tour work?
You drive the route at your own pace and the Ranger Tales app plays the story for each stop automatically when you arrive, using your phone's location. No tapping, no reading while you drive. Ranger Quinn guides and Ranger Boone tells the campfire tales.
How do I get the tour?
Download the free Ranger Tales app from the App Store, then unlock this tour inside the app. The tour downloads to your phone so it's ready offline before you arrive.
Can I cancel or get a refund?
Change of mind? Full refund if you request it within 24 hours of purchase. If a verified technical issue prevents access, contact support within 7 days for a refund or credit. All requests are reviewed at our discretion and refunded to your original payment method.
Reviews

Be the first to review this tour

Have you driven this one? Tell other travelers what you thought — it only takes a minute.

Buy this tour

Buy your self-guided tour

Pick a date and book online — checkout is secure, and your unlock code arrives by email. Works offline once it's in the app.

🎧 Get the tour

El Paso & the Franklin Mountains — in your pocket

Download the app, unlock the tour, and let it drive with you. Works offline.

App StoreGoogle Play

Buy the self-guided tour, or get it in the app.

More tours nearby

Keep exploring

Olympic National Park Drive + walkCarPlay

Olympic National Park

142 stops· 2 hr 8 min· 233.0 mi

A self-guided driving and walking tour of the ENTIRE Olympic National Park — three worlds in one journey: glacier-capped mountains, the wettest temperate rainforest in the Lower 48, and seventy-plus miles of wild Pacific coast, all driven on the great horseshoe of Highway 101 from Port Angeles down to Lake Quinault. Ranger Quinn guides you up every spur — Hurricane Ridge and Mount Olympus, the freed Elwha River, blue Lake Crescent, Sol Duc Falls, the Hoh Rain Forest, Rialto and Second Beach, Ruby Beach, the Kalaloch coast, and the Valley of the Rain Forest Giants — while Ranger Boone Merrick tells the tales that matter: the Lower Elwha Klallam who freed their river in the largest dam removal in American history, the Lady of the Lake, the Quileute's Move to Higher Ground, the Makah village the sea kept at Ozette, the two Roosevelts who built the park around its elk, and the world's largest spruce. This is the ancestral homeland of eight living, sovereign nations who steward it with the park today. The park interior is roadless, so you drive the perimeter and turn up the spurs; the tour plays whichever end you start from, by GPS. Around thirty dollars a vehicle gets you in for a week; cell signal dies past Port Angeles, so it works fully offline. On the coast, the tide can trap you and rolling drift logs kill — carry a tide chart and never turn your back on the ocean. 2026 note: some roads are gated by washout or fire (the Elwha beyond Madison Falls, Rialto's Mora Road in late season, the Quinault South Shore loop, Staircase) — the tour routes what's open and tells you the rest honestly; check the park's road line before you go.

Coronado Trail Scenic Byway — US-191Driving tourCarPlay

Coronado Trail Scenic Byway — US-191

51 stops· 1 hr 30 min· 94.7 mi

Capitol Reef National Park: The Waterpocket FoldDriving tourCarPlay

Capitol Reef National Park: The Waterpocket Fold

56 stops· 50 min· 36.9 mi

El Paso & the Franklin Mountains
one-time · yours forever · works offline