El Morro, Sept 2017

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Paso’ por aqui – ‘passed by here’ is what El Morro is a witness to.  We had passed by here late last year on the way to the Zuni pueblo to witness a celebration.  We stopped, then hiked the short trail around the base of tall sandstone outcrop.  We saw inscriptions from the Puebloans, circa 1000.  The etchings are primarily animals or symbols. 

The promise of riches in ‘Cibola’ followed by the desire to ‘save’ the native population by spreading religion brought the Spaniard influx that passed through the area with inscriptions dating from 1500’s – through the 1600’s.  The final grouping of inscriptions is during the 1800’s from people inscribing their names during the big westward push as America was being settled with New Mexico becoming a part of the United States in the 1840’s even though it didn’t officially become a state until 1912.

Seeing the inscriptions and knowing there was more to see prompted us to add El Morro National Monument on our bucket list.  The bonus came when we made a rest stop on our return trip from the Zuni pueblo late that night.  The moon was setting and the Milky Way was out.  I was certain the view would be jaw dropping so I made a point of stopping in the dark, empty campground.  Jaws were dropping at the sight.  With the Milky Way image in mind; Esther, Laurie, Terry and I determined the dates for our return visit; mid September with a moonless night and an early evening Milky Way appearance, the only thing that could ruin our view would be a cloudy night.

Not only are there the inscriptions on the face of the mesa; on top are half-buried pithouses.  It is believed that between 1,000- 1,500 people lived in this 875 room farming community.

This is the first trip with two people sharing my camper.  I’m comfortable using the camper myself, there’s lots of room for me…  We’ll find out how it works for two.

We arrive shortly after noon.  Driving through the 9 site campground doesn’t take very long and we make our site selections the second time through.  We occupy two sites; my camper in one and two tents in the other.  Ester brought Kiki, her dog, to enjoy the outdoors.  I can tell she’s enjoying the time by her dashing back and forth checking out all the new smells and sights.  The never ceasing tail wagging is another indicator.

As soon as everyone has their accommodations ready for the night we hurry off to the visitor center to start our hike.  Somehow we got separated early in our hike with two of us going in one direction and the other two going the opposite way, the trail is a loop so we should meet the pair that went the WRONG way.  The shaded pool still has water even this late in the summer.  This was the big draw, sometimes necessary, for those passing through on foot or horseback.  Living now it is just a feature to visit as we extract water bottles from our backpacks.

The inscriptions vary from symbols to extraordinary cursive signatures.  I’m embarrassed to say some of the cursive etching into the sandstone is better than my cursive with pen and paper.

Walking along the trail we see spires of rock separating from the rest of the mesa.  Ultimately these spires will join the others that have already fallen into heaps at the base of the mesa.  I secretly hope they will hang on until we pass to the other side.

Switchbacks lead us to the mesa top with views of the valleys opening below.  The mesa top forms a ‘U’ with the center containing a small grove of pines with the tops of the pines rising to almost our eye level standing on the mesa.  The colors of the sandstone vary between beige and white.  Trees somehow put down roots into the sandstone hanging on in the windy conditions.  Small grasses and wildflowers do the same.

The park service has dug steps into the sandstone allowing easy passage up and down the uneven terrain.  Small stones are also inserted into the sandstone outlining the trail.

The Atsinna pueblo on top of the mesa dates back to 1275.  It occupies and area 200’ x 300’ with 875 rooms on multiple levels.

After our hike we were invited to visit Colin Cantwell by his partner.  Sierra approached us “Do you like Star Wars?”, “What about 2001: A Space Odyssey?”  We jumped all over that one.  It turns out Colin designed the Star Wars – Death Star among other ships in the Star Wars trilogy.  He also had a role in the initial scenes of 2001.  Biggest, in my mind, is when Colin was the behind the scenes interpreter listening to NASA control during the first moon landing then relaying the information to Walter Cronkite so he could tell the rest of the nation.  The stories just kept coming.  After three hours of exchanging stories between the five of us we were pumped with excitement having met these special people.  They were camping out of their car on their way to another Comic con somewhere out west.

Hard to top that.

We enjoyed our grilled burgers and corn on the cob in the approaching darkness.  I eat better, and more, when I go camping.  Food seems to taste better too. Tonight is our night to see the Milky Way.  Even though the campfire is toasty warm I pick up my chair moving to the middle of the road with a nice, open, southerly view.  Several minutes go by before everyone wonders where I have disappeared to.  Finding me they ask why I am randomly sitting in the middle of the campground road, "Look up" I say.  Each of them disappears for a moment to retrieve their chairs before returning.  My eyes are already dark adapted and I have camera and tripod ready for even darker skies.

The campground at El Morro is a great place to see the night time sky.  There are no lights in this small open space between mesas.  Large towns are distant so there is minimal light pollution given how dark the sky became.  The only thing one has to pay attention to is when the moon rises and sets, especially if you want to see the sky at maximum darkness.

We sat and watched the sky move above us.  We saw planes pass with their flashing lights, man-made satellites and a few meteors streaking through the sky as they entered the atmosphere.  I had pulled out my star map to identify some of the constellations but had a hard time finding them; there were more stars than the map was showing so identification all but impossible.  We all were amazed.  Living in the big city makes one forget how dark the sky gets and multitude of stars hidden by the city lights.

The next morning we packed talking about our brief weekend; the hike, stories from people we met, the dark sky.  We made one last stop at the Ancient Way Café just a mile or so from the park entrance.  We dined on different breakfast dishes each of us happy with our choice.  I also stopped inside picking out a brownie for later.  Good stuff.  The Ancient Way Café is a place to visit for good food.

I'm happy to report that with just a little planning there is plenty of room for two in my camper.

This was a good trip.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark