TotSW: El Morro National Monument

After all the goofing around earlier in the day, we pulled into El Morro National Monument in the waning afternoon sunshine.  I wasn't sure what the camping situation was going to be, given that it was late Friday afternoon and there was only a small campground that didn't take reservations, we headed straight to the campground instead of trying for another hike.  Fortunately, it was almost empty and we had our pick of nice, big sites.  I love obscure national monuments that aren't crowded.

Chad and the kid rapidly set up camp while I figured out where to deposit the camping fee and assessed our food stores for dinner.

I might have wandered about looking at the vegetation a bit too...

Our haphazard dinner/kitchen setup.  All the dishes and tools are in the bins, and as long as the bags aren't empty there will be at least something to eat.

Chad is generally not worried at the occasional culinary improvisations; the kid sometimes claims concern.

I don't actually remember what we ate.  Perhaps pasta, perhaps quesadillas.  At any rate, we managed to eat before the sun went down.  It's easier to cook and eat when one can see, and then one can enjoy the sunset.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but on this particular evening, the sun sank into some slightly smoky murk that made it look like a giant glowing red orb that slowly sank to the horizon. 

We knew the rock feature on the left was the next morning's goal.

The few other people in the campground also enjoyed the show.

The camera on my phone actually did a pretty good job of capturing the redness.

As if it weren't already a fine evening, there was also a full moon.  The camera, of course, does not capture how enormous and bright it seemed when it first rose.

By morning, we realized that the entire area rang with the sound of ticking insects.  Time for a cicada bloom!  These guys were everywhere, and their song would wax and wane, sometimes becoming almost earsplitting.  Pretty weird, for a bunch of bugs.

The next morning, we headed over to the rock formation that gives the monument its name.  El Morro -- aka "The headland" or "Atsinna" or "Inscription Rock" has been a crossroads for hundreds of years, in part due to the reliable water pool at the rock's base.

As we followed the trail around the rock's base, the origin of the name "Inscription Rock" rapidly became apparent.

The soft sandstone provided a suitable substrate for a proper palimpsest of carved inscriptions for generations of explorers, colonists, railway survey workers, and others that came through the area.

Some of the inscriptions are quite elaborate.  Definitely not your everyday graffiti.

We figured Mr. Breckinridge might have had a side gig carving tombstones, given his excellent lettering skills.  His documented claim to fame was as the leader of team of 25 camels in the short-lived U.S Army Camel Corps.

Many of the earlier inscriptions are in Spanish.  This one looks dark due a now-thought-to-be-misguided former attempt to "restore" the inscriptions by rubbing graphite into them.

The oldest inscriptions containing dates go back to the 1600's.

Of course, this whole area was populated well before the conquistadores showed up.  The rock also contains some fine petroglyphs -- a testament to the earlier peoples inhabiting and passing through the area.

It was pretty entertaining to try to spot all the markings.  Many of them were about eye level, but some were higher.  See all the faint rectangles about halfway up?

If I remember correctly, these ones were all members of a rail survey team that worked through the area in the latter half of the 1800's.  One wonders if they used the higher wall because the lower edge was already full.

After thoroughly enjoying spotting carved names, we headed around the corner.  It is all quite scenic.

We couldn't help but see this side as a face looking out at us.

Then it was time to climb up top.  Dad monster chases kid.

Cactuses were in bloom.

Before we knew it, we were at the top.

There was a gentler slope into a valley on the inside of this vaguely U-shaped outcrop,

and the trail was well worn into the rock, indicating the previous passage of quite a lot of foot traffic in the past.  Cairns guided the eye now and again, though the route was generally pretty obvious.

We worked our way around the U and enjoyed the sunshine.

At the far end of the trail, there was yet more to see -- remnants of a large pueblo that is thought to date back to about 1275.

The Puebloans who lived here had an amazing view, and clearly had a carefully crafted system for catching and caching water.

The kiddo looks at a small cistern that catches water as it pours off the top when it rains.

All too soon, we wound our way back around to a view of where we started.  And there was still half the day left.  Stay tuned for the next National Monument...