My El Paso Jogging Course

I do a lot of jogging and it was actually one of the factors I considered when looking for a house to purchase in El Paso, Texas.  One of the reasons I liked the house that my wife and I ultimately bought was because it was adjacent to the desert that extends to the north of El Paso:

It is out in this desert that I measured myself out a four mile long jogging course that has nice sweeping views of El Paso’s Franklin Mountains:

Here is the midpoint of my jogging course looking towards the north and the distant Sacramento Mountains:

It was here at about this point that back in December I saw a mountain lion cross the dirt road about 50 yards in front of me:

I often see coyotes while jogging out here, but that is the only time I have ever seen mountain lion out in the desert.  Fortunately it was a small mountain lion, so I wasn’t too concerned about it.  The mountain lion probably wandered out of the mountain to catch some easy rabbits to eat due to the cold winter weather that has probably made hunting in the mountains difficult.

I tried to jog my course about twice a week though in the winter months I got to force myself to get out there and run because it is so darn cold.  I will have to bring my camera out with me sometime on one of my early morning runs because the sunrise over the mountains can be quite scenic at time.