May 11 2018 New Mexico

11 May 2018. Left our campsite and headed to El Morro National Monument.  This is a beautiful site, and really the only place for 150 miles that the native Americans and early settlers had to get water.  The little Oasis pool here is no longer really natural, its been expanded and lined with cement, but is still full of water.  There are a few petroglyphs here, and lots of early settlers left historical graffiti – their names carved into the rock walls.

Bluffs at El Morro National Monument, New Mexico
There are remains of a Pueblo at the top of this bluff at El Morro National Monument
Walkway to Oasis Pool at El Morro
Oasis Pool at El Morro
Bluff wall at El Morro where people have carved their names

Here are some photos of the some of the inscriptions on the wall:

Petroglyphs at El Morro
Early explorer inscriptions (in Spanish)
Zoom in to see these inscriptions
Can you see where the park superintendent (in 1920) “erased” all the inscriptions later than 1906?
Petroglyphs of Mountain goats