Starting at North Hills Access trail, near Chuck Heinrich's Memorial Park, take the Old Tin Mine Road until you reach Mundy's Gap Trail. There, you turn to the left all the way to the peak of the North Franklin Mountain. The trip is about 6.3 miles to reach the peak (plus 6.3 miles on your way back) and it's a hiking, bike and running trail, which have seen the footprints of runners like Jim Walmsley, Karl "The Speed Goat" Meltzer, and Miguel Lara just to name a few that have participated in the Texas Ultra held in El Paso Texas.
It features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from April until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail. A the peak, you are able to see 3 states: Texas and New Mexico from the US, and Chihuahua from Mexico.
Here's the link in Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/31.9301102,-106.4507475/North+Franklin+Mountain,+El+Paso,+TX+79904/@31.9165363,-106.4861027,14z/data=!4m10!4m9!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x86e755d69edfc323:0xf8ac1211f9ec166d!2m2!1d-106.4938773!2d31.9028821!3e2!4e1
The Trans-Franklin Mountain Trail shows most of the way, but rather than starting at the Franklin Mountain's State Park at the West, start at the East, at Chuck Heinrich's Park, and go all the way to the peak rather than to Mundy's Gap on the West:
https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/texas/trans-franklin-mountain-trail?mobileMap=false&ref=sidebar-static-map&ref=sidebar-view-full-map
Comments
2:02:20 hrs ascent.
Go and give it a try!
Â
https://www.suunto.com/en-us/move/luismartinez800/606901b3bf1c00633d35d…
Just posting this as a bit of a placeholder on behalf of the editors. This segment used to have several times in the unsupported men's section, both ascent and up&down. I attempted it in March of 2023, running a 1:17:41 ascent, and a 2:10:58 up&down, which would have beaten the fastest time by some margin. When I posted my FKT, the editor rightly pointed out that the uphill route has a strava segment and that the current leader, Justin Gable, has the FKT dating back to 2014. He ran a ~1:51:30 (up&down) and a ~1:02:00 ascent. The editor subsequently removed all the other male unsupported efforts. Thanks to the editors for doing the hard work to set the record straight...even if it means I need to get wayyyyy faster to get my name on the board.
There needs to be some agreement on the starting and ending point. Many of the times people have submitted here are the times from the existing Strava segments, which start part way up the trail. The listed description says start/end at Chuck Heinrich Park. I would propose that all future attempts should start and end their attempts at the arch at the end of the parking lot that signifies the trail entrance. Also, if you are going to submit the for the ascent only, you should lap your watch when you touch the radio repeater at the summit to get a precise time for the ascent portion of your run.