El Morro National Park

WOW!! I’m so excited to hear from old friends (not forgotten) who are checking in with us. Thanks for your e-mails and comments. Over 100 hits today. OK, so 20 of them are probably from my family ☺

This morning we visited El Morro National Monument (www.nps.gov/elmo) using our almost paid for itself See America the Beautiful pass. I can be quoted as of yesterday that I think I have had enough hiking up mountains to see more ruins . . . ate my words today and have a renewed appreciation of these national parks and monuments.

Inscription Rock (sandstone bluff) holds carved signatures of those passing through (yea, right) to stop at the only watering hole for more than 30 miles. HOW did they KNOW this was there? Some of these inscriptions looked like lettered tombstones or beautifully penned signatures. I can’t imagine how long they had to stand there to complete these.
Then we ascended over 400 feet to the top of the mountain – tons of switchback paths. Hardly a railing and steps carved into the mountainside by WPA work groups of the ‘30’s. Unbelievable! The “trail” is hard to follow once you are on top. “Just follow the carved sides, you’ll be able to see it.” say the rangers at the visitor’s center. It’s hard to stop and take pictures when you are trying not to fall into the canyon! We still are impressed with the fact that the general public can still enjoy these things without signing a waiver or photocopying your insurance card. The park ranger at the Anasazi ruins said no hazardous incidents in the 8 years he has been there.
Amazing that in the 1270’s aprox. 1100 Anasazi’s dwelled in 875 rooms all the way up here! They have only excavated a handful of these tiny rooms. Harder
yet was not digging a little hole into the ground in the hopes to uncover a fragment of pottery . . . good thing there was a ranger up there. He is a Zuni Indian who graciously spent over an hour sharing Zuni history and tradition with us. One of the benefits of visiting off-season. Some of my friends from Crossfield would have never left the mountain – or taken him home for dinner. He was great. Melopia (Zuni for my pleasure).

Long winded, again. Google’s web album is having issues as I am trying to upload some pictures to share.

I'll catch on to this formating thing and make this blog look a little better.

Tomorrow is another day.

Until then, thanks for dropping by. Thinking of you all.
Jody