Tuesday, September 16, 2014

El Morro

El Morro is also known as Inscription Rock.  It has writings dating back to 1600s. It has a pool of water at the bottom that was a most welcome site in this dry land for travelers of all nationalities. 

You can start to get an idea of how large it is by seeing how small the kids look walking in front of me as we start around to look at the writings.   The pool is straight in front, right at the curve of the mountain. 




View from the bottom. I am planning on going to the top.  At this moment I am wondering how I will make it. 

View from the trail up..... It was a good excuse to stop and take pictures and BREATHE. 


I love this picture.  It is kinda hard to see but there is a crack, between the rock that is the main mountain and the other rock that stands alone.  
To the top finally!!!

I didn't know until I made it to the top that the other side of El Morro is a box canyon.   I found that really neat.   These pictures are the inside of the canyon.  We walked around the U to the other side to come down to the parking lot. 

View into the distance from the top. 
Here is another shot of the rock that has the crack separating it from the main part of the mountain.
I found this tree interesting.  This picture doesn't really show how it was laying, I was trying to show the saddle that this tree has worn as it grew in the rock. 
Same tree, the saddle part is not in the picture. 
Now you get the more or less full picture.  The saddle part is in the rock above the stairs.  This is on top of the mesa
Stay on the trail!  That is what we were told.  The trail is chiseled into the the rock, back in the 30's.  If you look close you can see two lines in the rock that denote the trail 
This is the head of the box canyon, that we walked around to get to the other side.



Ruins on the other side.  The feel at one time as many as 1800 people lived on top of this mesa.  

Starting down, the pool is at the bottom of the mountain in this picture. 
I was MUCH slower than the kids as you can see in how fast they went down.  The buildings were in the distance below. 

I like old trees. I wonder how hold this tree is. 
 Here is a link to the site if you want more information. 

http://www.nps.gov/elmo/index.htm

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