El Morro

 

Another 20 miles west of the Zuni-Acoma Trailhead is El Morro National Monument. We had a few hours to do some exploring before we had to drive back to the trailhead and pick up the boys at the end of their hike, so we headed down the road. You can see El Morro on the far upper left of this map below.

 

After crossing over the Continental Divide, we were soon at El Morro National Monument. Notice Inscription Rock in the background? I had to get in just the right position to include it with the sign.

Don’t you think this photo would make a nice postcard?

El Morro National Monument is located on an ancient east-west trail in western New Mexico. The main feature of this National Monument is a great sandstone promontory with a pool of water at its base. As a shaded oasis in the western U.S. desert, this site has seen many centuries of travelers.

The remains of a mesa top pueblo are atop the promontory where, between about 1275 to 1350 AD, up to 1500 people lived in this 875 room pueblo. The Spaniard explorers called it El Morro (The Headland). The Zuni Indians call it "A'ts'ina" (Place of writings on the rock). Anglo-Americans called it Inscription Rock.

Travelers left signatures, names, dates, and stories of their treks. While some of the inscriptions are fading, there are still many that can be seen today, some dating to the 17th century. Some petroglyphs and carvings were made by the Anasazi centuries before Europeans started making their mark. (In 1906, U.S. federal law prohibited further carving.)

The many inscriptions, water pool, pueblo ruins, and top of the promontory are all accessible via park trails.

And we picked up our Trail Guide before heading out onto the trail.

 

We only had time to hike the Inscription Trail and part of the Headland Trail that day. We’ll have to come back another time to explore the rest of the Headland Trail and the A’ts’inna Pueblo.

 

Jen and Dobbie were raring to go, while I enjoyed the shade through the tunnel of Juniper Trees.

 

The trail up to Inscription Rock was very well planned and enjoyable to hike on.

 

The paved trail travels steadily upwards and with the heat of the afternoon, we took advantage of one of the benches placed beside the trail.

 

I think this would make a nice postcard, don’t you?

”El Morro National Monument ~ Wish You We’re Here”

 

The trail wound around closer and closer to the sandstone bluffs.

 

The majestic rock bluffs dwarfed us. We were in awe with our faces upturned and a crick on our necks.

Behind Jen and Dobbie is where the pond is located. The black streaks above the pond are the stains left behind from rain and snow melt dripping down below. There are no springs. All the water within the pond is from rain or snow melt.

 

 

 

 

 

This trail was so enjoyable. The beautiful vistas and nature just called out for photography at every turn.

 

We first noticed the petroglyphs, particularly the bighorn sheep and the bear paw. Many petroglyphs depict animals that were once familiar fauna in the region. Seeing these shapes made us wonder why people pecked them into the bluff.

 

 The last inscription from Spanish colonial times is by Andrews Romero. He wrote, "Andres Romero passed through here in the year 1774." Romero's visit was followed by turbulent times. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. Then, following the U.S.-Mexican War from 1846-1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded large areas of land from Mexico to the United States. This new land, the New Mexico Territory, opened the way for the Americans--the last of the inscribers--to come through El Morro.

 

Many Spanish inscribers wrote paso por aqui or "passed through here." In Spanish, the inscription below says:

"A 25 del mes de Junyo, ano de 1709 paso por aqui para Suni--Ramon Garcia Jurado." Translation: "On the 25th of the month of June, of this year of 1709, Ramon Garcia Jurado passed through here on the way to Zuni."

From the time Ramon Garcia Jurado moved to New Mexico as a colonist in 1693 until his death at the age of 80 in 1760, he was witness and participant in the Spanish settlement of New Mexico. It is likely that he was on a campaign against the Navajos during his visit to El Morro in 1709.

 

This was one of my favorite inscriptions and the reason I placed a letterbox nearby. “Peachy” G. Breckinridge was the man in charge of 25 camels that were being tested by the U.S Army for their use in the deserts by Lieutenant Beale in 1857. After his work with Beale, Breckinridge returned to his home state of Virginia and fought in the Civil War. He was killed during a skirmish at Kennon's Landing, Virginia in 1863.

As far as the camels, think U.S Camelry.

Have you seen the movie "Hawmps"? Hilarious!

E. Penn Long of Baltimore, Maryland chiseled this elegant-looking inscription. Long was a member of a U.S. Army expedition led by Lt. Edward F. Beale to find a wagon route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the Colorado River. The group, which first passed by El Morro in 1857, was also testing the usefulness of camels in crossing the deserts of the Southwest.

 

I usually tend to take animal or people photos, so it was really fun and challenging to stretch myself and experiment with landscape photos. The rock was just begging to be photographed, though, and I was happy to oblige.

 

 Another postcard perfect photo, don’t you think?

Except the Ponderosa Pine looks a little wonky.

 

This same tree looks even wonkier from this perspective, don’t you think?

Do you see this slab of rock with the huge vertical crack in it? Yeah. That’s a problem.

This may be the last time we see this rock in this position. And one of the last photos ever taken of it.

 If you look closely you might be able to see all the metal hardwear, cables and ropes tucked on it. The National Park Service is very concerned about the possibility of this slab of rock calving off and crashing to the ground, so they are closely monitoring it for any signs of additional fracture.

There are only a few small inscriptions on this slab,m but it’s still sad to think of the inscriptions that will be lost. And I sure wouldn’t want to be on the trail when it falls, but it would be rather neat to watch it crash, from a safe distance.

 

That’s what this box is for. A cable runs from the crack in the rock to this monitoring box below the slab of rock.

 

The Rose Emigrant train was led by L.J. Rose  who was born in Germany, but had made his fortune selling dry goods in Iowa. The Rose Emigrant Train was the first to try this route to California in 1858. The original caravan consisted of forty families, including a  twelve year old girl named Sallie Fox. She left her inscription on this rock, too, but it is now too faded to photograph well.  Sallie was shot with an arrow during the attack at the Colorado River by the Mojave Indians, but she survived. Thanks to journals kept by the immigrants, we know that survivors of the attack, including L.J. Rose, walked most of the way back to New Mexico to wait out the winter.

 

Some of the high carvings here have the letters "U.P.R.(Union Pacific Railroad)," carved by workers on the survey crew. The Santa Fe Railroad twenty-five miles to the north rerouted travelers ending El Morro's place as a stopover on the route west.

 

P.H. Williamson was a member of the first emigrant train to try this route to California in 1858. The original caravan consisted of forty families and was led by L.J. Rose. At El Morro, they left their inscriptions and then moved on to the Colorado River, where they were attacked by Mojave Indians.

 R.H. Orton became adjutant-general of California after the Civil War. In the early years of the Civil War, the California Column, as it was known, was sent to New Mexico to reinforce Federal Troops expecting Confederate hostilities. Orton held the rank of captain when the First Cavalry was mustered out from March to October of 1866. He may have made his inscription as he returned to California.

 Another favorite inscription (also near where we found a letterbox), this one is one of the oldest and more famous inscriptions at El Morro--that of the first governor of New Mexico, Don Juan de Onate—it was inscribed in 1605, fifteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

Also notice how this inscription is an example of early well-intentioned, but intrusive attempts at preservation work. Early park managers darkened the inscriptions with graphite, also known as no. 2 pencils, so that they would be more visible and last longer. They ended this kind of preservation in the 1930s.

 

All along the way, I kept being inspired to take many photos using all sorts of different angles.

Does this one give you vertigo? 

 

There were still some inscriptions to see and fun trail to follow. Do you see Jen and Dobbie up there?

 

While I hiked up these several flights of steep stairs, I was reminded of how I wasn’t able to walk up stairs just two years ago after my ACL surgery and broken knee. I’m just so grateful that I’m able to walk and hike again, so I can visit all these interesting and beautiful places with my family.

 

There were more inscriptions at the top of the stairs and Jen and Dobbie kept encouraging me to hike up faster so I could read the plaques to them.

 

The views were incredible at the top of the stairs, though. Wouldn’t this make a great postcard?

There wasn’t any information on this inscription and artwork. I really like the rope/lasso carving, though. 

This is another one of my favorites, and one that makes me giggle:

Lt. J.H. Simpson, an engineer for the army, and Mr. R.H. Kern, a Philadelphia artist employed by the army as topographer were the first English-speaking people to make a record of Inscription Rock. They spent two days copying the inscriptions and petroglyphs, and their reports of the visit show that not a single English inscription could be found on the rock. Though they were so careful to duplicate the inscriptions’ in detail, they made a blunder of their own. Look carefully and you'll see that they inscribed "insciptions" rather than "inscriptions," forever immortalizing in stone their own spelling error. (lol!)

 

 

 

Another perfect postcard photo. Do you see the dog head on the rock face?

 

How about now? The dog’s floppy ear is dangling down, while it’s nose is pointing up. And the eye is right where it’s supposed to be.

 

I just love trees. Especially unique and unusual trees, trees that stand out, and trees that struggle to survive even under the most adverse and difficult situations. Like this 60-70’ tall Ponderosa Pine Tree, wedged into a dry, crumbly sandstone bluff. The only water it receives is the rare rainstorm in late summer and the occasional winter snowfall. What is it’s anchor to the earth? And where and how far does it’s roots grow?

 

I decided to edit this photo ala Ansel Adams. I think the black and white scheme gives this tree a stronger presence.

Which do you like better?