El Morrow National Monument

 Still in Billings

Left Gallup heading south. You'all know I'm not a point A to point B kind of traveler. Two places I wanted to visit today but the day is heating up rapidly into the 90's.

My first stop is El Morro National Monument. The U. S.'s second oldest National Monument. (The oldest national monument, if you're interested, is Devil's Tower in Wyoming.)

El Morro has a small pool on it's east side that has water year round from rain and snow melt. For that reason it became the camping ground for all travelers through this area. There are over 2000 inscriptions and petroglyphs carved into the rocks.

 

Don Juan de Oñate was the first Spaniard to sign in at El Morro. He visited El Morro in April, 1605 while traveling home to San Gabriel from an expedition to the Pacific, carving his name in the rock 15 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. 

 

Jim and I stopped here back in 2011. This stop proved to me what a difference 14 years can make to my body and my ability to do things. I thought I could walk the inscription trail but it was not to be. I had forgotten that it was uphill most of the way and then several steps to go down and then back up and down a couple more times. And it was HOT. May was a much better time to make this stop.

I had my water which is a good thing. I went as far as I could until I came to a down slope in the trail. My ankle no longer works to go down anything that is steep. There was nothing for me to hold on to, so I made the decision to turn around and head back to the visitor center.

 I enjoyed the part of the trail I did walk. There was no one else on the trail except some four legged critters. It was peaceful and beautiful.  I thought about all the thousands of people who passed this way throughout history. Worth every step that I took.

 If you would like to see some of the petroglyphs, check out my post from May 10, 2011 - El Morrow