March 6 El Morro and the Painted Desert

El Morro

Today we are at Grants, New Mexico about 240 miles from Flagstaff which we didn’t want to arrive at before the 7th. We have decided to make this a side trip day, after the last 3 days of driving 300+ miles a day. As luck would have it, we were able to detour off Highway 40 and take a scenic loop called the Trail of the Ancients. The main feature on this route is El Morro, or Inscription Rock. El Morro is a tall sandstone outcropping that has a natural pool at its base. It is the only water to be found in a 30 mile radius. Because El Morro can be seen far across the prairie it has been a landmark and oasis in the desert for thousands of years. People who stopped over have been carving inscriptions in the rock until the forest service put a stop to it. The first inscriptions were made by the early Indians, petroglyphs of bear claws, deer, and lizards can still be seen. The Spanish Conquistadors came this way and added their marks beginning in 1604. Later the American Army (including the Camel Corps) wrote their inscriptions in the 1840s. Emigrants to California made their way to El Morro in the 1850s. In 1881, the transcontinental railway was engineered and built some 25 miles north of El Morro and it no longer became a necessary stop for travelers. It is an interesting place to visit today to see the pond and to see the inscriptions on the rock. Many are clearly readable and the penmanship is quite impressive.

Spanish Inscription circa 1709

On this same loop is the Indian village of Zuni, which we hoped would be like the Taos pueblo, but unfortunately was not. It looked like many of the other communities we have passed, very run down and not much going on.

We continued to head west back on Highway 40 and stopped at the Painted Desert National Park and took the tour. It is quite impressive. There is a “mini grand canyon” in red and blue hues which is quite pleasing to gaze upon. There are many fossilized remains in these “badlands” and so the area is popular with archeologists. The other interesting attraction are the petrified forests. There are many here, with the stone logs laying on the ground in great number. The ‘logs” are generally 2 to 4ft in diameter, look like they have been cut up into lengths suitable for the fireplace. The rangers claim that the petrified trees just naturally fragment that way, despite the way they look like the loggers had been through. Anyway it was a fun, if not an educational diversion, along Highway 40 and the old Route 66

Petrified wood all cut up