By Romare Herbert
El Paso has so many exciting and culturally diverse activities to explore! One of my favorite area “things” to do with our out-of-town guests on a Sunday afternoon is to take them to Cattleman’s Steakhouse at Indian Cliffs Ranch, in the outskirts of El Paso. It is approximately 20 miles east of El Paso and five miles north of I-10. It has also become a tradition to take our twins Ava and Daniel there each year for their birthday dinner!
Cattleman’s is a huge working ranch with a family-style steakhouse on the premises. What comes to mind for most people when Cattleman’s is mentioned are the large, tender steaks and potatoes that are served along with the all-you-can enjoy platters of beans and coleslaw with pineapple. The steaks are aged in-house and have a special seasoning, a secret family recipe. They also serve seafood pork and chicken entrees.
What my children look forward to every year is the house dessert called “Queen of Sheba,” a whipped cream confection made with chocolate wafers and cherries at the bottom, which is “on the house” when celebrating a birthday.
What surprises people the most is to find out that there is a zoo out there as well. The zoo is our favorite part of spending the afternoon here. There are bunnies, donkeys, prairie dogs, peacocks, sheep, buffalo, rams, an ostrich, long horn, horses, goats and even a rattlesnake pit. There is also a lake to take a stroll by, an Indian maze to get lost in and playgrounds for the kids to jump around and enjoy the outdoors.
Several Hollywood movies have been filmed there including “The Border,” with Jack Nicholson, “Long Wolf McQuade,” starring Chuck Norris and the 1990’s film “Courage Under Fire.”
The reason we choose to go on Sunday afternoons is because that is the only day that free hayrides are given out to some of the movie sets. They will make stops so that pictures can be taken, and the area can further be explored. It is important to make sure to book the hayride in advance, between the hours 1pm and 7pm, to secure a ride on these authentic tractor-pulled rides.
Every time we go out to Cattleman’s for the afternoon, we have an adventurous and fun experience. We get to see the surprised and excited expressions of our kiddos and our guests, and it always feels like we have gone back in time and ended up on an old cowboy ranch and it is a feeling that can only be felt here in El Paso.