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Upper Valley
El Paso
By Matthew Aguilar
El Paso Times
Twelve years ago, Bernie Sargent had landed a job in a Juárez, Mexico, maquiladora and was contemplating his new home in El Paso when his wife, Melissa, noticed a plush patch of green on the West Side while flying over the city in a plane.
“That’s where I want to live,” Melissa Sargent said.
At the time, El Paso’s Upper Valley was virtually new suburban territory, an area still covered with farmlands.
Today, the river valley still has the trees and grass that made it look so pleasant to the Sargents 12 years ago, but now they are surrounded by two-story houses and bicycle paths.
The affluent community is a quiet area of wide streets and shade trees. It has a sense of country living where there are no convenience stores on each corner. But there are plenty of services available on Doniphan, a nearby main drag. The Rio Grande cuts a path through the community, which is criss-crossed with irrigation canals.
Still, despite the wilderness beauty of the Upper Valley, some residents are concerned by the lack of formal recreational space. The area has about 20 acres of park land and ranks last in the city in terms of parks.
The area is one of the fastest growing sections of the city, and with that population growth comes the destruction of some of the farming and ranching community.
“That’s the downside,” Bernie Sargent said.
The main street, Doniphan Drive, is lined with many specialty shops and restaurants, as well as antique stores. There are several nearby grocery stores, a country club, golf course and a private airport. Not far from there is Sunland Park Racetrack for horse racing.
Perhaps the most prized area of the Upper Valley is the Doniphan Wetlands, a natural refuge for wildlife on a migratory path of several species of birds. Residents and tourists use the land for bird watching and nature walks.
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