El Morro, NM - El Morro Nat'l Monument

I thought El Morro was going to be just another "inscription rock". Don't get me wrong, I like to read the history of the people that travel through the area and imagine their lives and hardships in the years they passed by this rock and carved an inscription. Some inscriptions are just names and dates. Others were brief explanations on who they were or the mission they were on. Many travelers came to El Morro because it had a perpetual pool of water at its base. Its first inscription was in 1605. Many in Spanish, some Indian petroglyphs, and then in the 1800's were the American travelers.
The melting snow would cascade over the rock and hold in the pool below...


The 2-mile long loop trail wrapped around the point of this sandstone bluff and zig-zagged up the backside. That's when this rock became enchanting.

At the top of the bluff you realized that the rock is actually the walls of a box canyon.

The trail is now marked with cairns and etchings in the sandstone to keep you from getting too close to the cliff's edge.

A fast approaching storm is awesome to watch, until you realize that you are standing on the highest point in the area and there's not many places to hide on a rock and you remember that the rangers told you how the visitor center was struck by lightning just a week ago. The high iron content in the lava fields attracts lightning to this area.

The Atsinna Ruins sit high atop this sandstone bluff and date back to the 1200's. Beautiful location, but I'd question living here because of the strong winds and lightning. But the sandstone would hold small pools of water in the divets and pockets in the soft rock and they had the pond down below on the desert floor. Probably strong reasons for choosing this location.

We would've loved to have spent more time on top of Inscription Rock, but perhaps another day. Just to note: it snowed here three days ago. Six inches fell. That would've been pretty to see. The ranger laughed at this memory considering today he was in short sleeves...note, we were in fleece, HE was in short sleeves.