We got up early this morning to head to western New Mexico. There are two national monuments about 1.5 hours west of Albuquerque. So we decided to go to the farthest one and then work our way east to the second one. The first was El Morro (Spanish for headland) National Park. We arrived around ten and had time to get our 28thPark Passport Stamp, watch the park movie and puruse the park gift shop before heading out on Inscription Rock Trail. El Morro is a fairly small national monument of sand stone that surprisingly shoots straight up from the desert floor where “Inscription Rock” is located. The sandstone formation has a pool of water at its base that was an inviting and reliable oasis and water source. The pool is fed by snow melt and rain water from the butte and faces north so it doesn’t get exposed to the southern sun. Water is always present, even during the worst droughts.
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| entrance Sign |
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| El Morro |
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| The pool at the base of Inscription Rock |
Petroglyphs carved in the sandstone by Zuni Pueblo Indians date back thousands of years. The earliest inscriptions by Europeans were by Spanish explorers in 1605. The earliest English inscriptions were by an Army Officer in 1850 following the area become part of the US after the Mexican American War (1846-1848). Settlers heading to California along the route laid out by Commander Beale stopped at this location as well, leaving their names carved into the rock. One inscription was by a young girl who was later injured in an Indian attack. Another by a Army officer and a Army artist sent to copy the inscriptions in 1859. Some of the inscriptions are getting hard read due to the continuing erosion by rain and wind. There are hundreds of inscriptions spread around the base of the sandstone butte. The trail to the inscriptions is only a half-mile long. Past the inscriptions, the trail continues and climbs to the top of the butte where the remains of a Pueblo village are visible as well as a view down into a box canyon. We decided to skip the butte portion of the trail so we could have more time to visit the other national monument on the way back.
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| Petroglyph on Inscription Rock |
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| Petroglyph on Inscription Rock |
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| Petroglyph on Inscription Rock |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
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| Inscriptions on Inscription Rock. |
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| Inscription on Inscription Rock. Notice the Year |
About 30 miles to the east is El Malpais National Monument. We had driven through the northern edge of the monument on the way to El Morro. We noticed there were two RV parks between the two NM that would make good bases for future explorations. While we were at El Morro, we picked up information on El Malpais and the privately run Ice Cave. At the very western edge of El Malpais, there is a dirt/gravel road that runs back to some volcanic cinder cones and lava tubes. The ranger warned us the road was rough, in part due to deep ruts caused by people going on the road when it was wet, and that it was almost impassible when wet. When we got the road, it looked dry and in good shape so we decided to go exploring. The road skirts the western edge of the old lava fields and goes all the way around the western and southern portions of the monument. We took the “Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway” to the Lava Tube loop. We decided to do the Lava Tube loop and then head back to the road since it would take hours to do the entire road. The roads were red dirt with occasional gravel patches and crossed small portions of lava field. We came across many places where we had to navigate around deep ruts from people slogging through deep mud. The Lava Loop road led to a parking area for the giant lava tube trailhead. Having seen plenty of lava and lava tubes in Hawaii on our honeymoon, we decided not to hike the trail. Past the trailhead parking area, the road became very primitive and rough. It tested the ground clearance of the truck in several places. When we finally looped back to the byway, we could see heavy storm clouds building above us. Thinking about the warning of the ranger, we booked it back to the pavement as fast as we could. As we pulled back onto the paved road, it started to rain! Whew!!!
A little way up the road was the Ice Cave. The Ice Cave is a privately owned tourist stop that is grandfathered into the National Monument when it was created in 1906. It has been run by the same family since the late 1800s. From the visitor center, there is a trail to a large lava tube where water had frozen in an ice pool 20 feet thick. The oldest ice at the bottom of the ice pool is 1100 years old. Rainwater and snow melt seeps into lava cave where it freezes in the pool each year. The room with the ice never gets above 31 degrees even when the outside air temperatures are over 100 degrees. Several lava tubes in the monument have ice in them year round. We decided to bypass the Ice Cave since we had spent more time exploring the dirt road than planned and we drove on to El Malpais Visitor center.
The El Malpais visitor center is located immediately off I-40. We collected our 29thPark Passport Stamp, watch the park movie and puruse the park gift shop. The Ranger suggested we drive NM117 down the eastern edge of the NM. It was a beautiful drive. On one side of the road was granite buttes that were 138 million years old. On the other side was a huge lava field dating back thousands of years. The contrast was incredible. At one point the road climbs ontop the granite buttes for an amazing view over the lava fields with the volano cones in the distance. But it was also raining again, so we did not stay too long. Further on there was a granite arch that was amazing. We then headed back to Albuquerque feeling it had been a great day of exploration.
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| Entrance Sign |
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| View of the lava field from the top of the grant bluffs |
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| Granite Arch |
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