Parks 31, 32, 33: Petroglyph, El Malpais & El Morro National Monuments & Continental Divide Trail in New Mexico

8/14/13. Today was exciting and exhausting. We spent the whole day visiting national monuments in New Mexico.

Petroglyph

Petroglyph

We started out the morning driving the 2 hours from Santa Rosa to the Petroglyph National Monument. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to get the lay of the land. There are three different Canyons in this park and we decided to go to Boca Negra. It was a fantastic choice. We climbed up the volcanic rocky cliff and the petroglyphs were all over the rocks surrounding us. It was amazing to see how similar the symbols were to common pictures we use – such as emoticons. The climb was rigorous, but the view from the top was worth it.

We left the canyon and headed west for another hour and a half to El Malpais National Monument. We stopped first at the NW New Mexico Visitor Center where the ranger did a great job of helping us understand all the places to explore in this huge park and conservation area.  “The primeval black basalt terrain was created by volcanic forces over the past million years. Molten  lava spread out over the high desert from dozens of eruptions to create cinder cones, shield volcanoes, collapses, trenches, caves, and other eerie formations. This stark landscape preserves one of the best continuous geologic records of volcanism on the planet.” We also got a stamp for the Continental Divide Trail which we crossed at least twice today.

El Malpais Conservation Area

Junction Cave - A collapsed lava tube

We set off down the east section of the park, intending to drive through the area for an hour or so. We realized after a while that we had almost no gas! We turned around immediately and crossed our fingers that we would make it out of the park back to the Interstate. Thankfully we did, and as it turned out, we didn’t go back, but moved on to other areas of the park that we enjoyed much more.

Catherine sitting on edge of the cave

We stopped next at El Calderon and walked a short trail to Junction Cave, a lava tube that had partially collapsed and created a series of caves. It was fascinating and so different from anything we’d see before.

Bandera Crater in background at El MalPais

We continued farther up the mountain area to another visitor’s center where we got more stamps. The ranger convinced us to drive to the area where you can hike up to the Bandera Crater. This was steep, but the terrain was amazing. Between the Ponderosa pine trees and the lava, I took tons of photos. The view of the cinder crater at the top was worth the sweat to get up there. We were at an elevation of about 7700 feet so our lungs were working hard. We came back down and then hiked to an ice cave that is low in the ground and so cold that ice stays frozen on the bottom all year round. What a sight! It was so strange how cold it go as we descended the steps to the bottom.

We were really happy to have made it to the top of this trail!

Ice Cave at El Malpais

Views of El Morro sandstone cliffs

El Morro National Monument

By now we were exhausted, but we still wanted to visit the El Morro monument that was about a half an hour away. We drove over the continental divide and through the Ramah Navajo Reservation to get to this huge sandstone bluff. El Morro has been a favorite watering hole and campsite since prehistoric times. It has ruins from a pueblo settlement 400-700 years ago and over 2000 inscriptions carved on the walls dating from prehistoric times, Spanish conquistadors, up through century settlers. We opted for hiking the shorter trail that took us past the pool of water that collects from rainwater but remains full all year long, and past the hundreds of inscriptions. The park video, Paso Por Aqui, summed up the history of this place so well by showing how generations of very different people are all connected through their need to leave their mark in the world.
settlement 400-700 years ago and over 2000 inscriptions carved on the walls dating from prehistoric times, Spanish conquistadors, up through 19

Inscriptions on the wall of El Morro from 1632

We left the park at 5:30 barely able to walk! We drove an hour northwest to reach the Interstate again and stopped at Pizza Hut to load up on carbs!

Family-size breadsticks at Pizza Hut - Yum!

We then drove another hour and a half, arriving at Holbrook Arizona. We are all set to start another day of exploring park lands tomorrow, starting with the Petrified Forest. But for now we’re too tired to do anything but fall into bed.