Travelers Left Theirs Mark at El Morro

In the middle of a grassy New Mexico plain a wall of rock rises into the sky. Runoff from the cliff pools at its base, a rare, reliable water source in the midst of a desolate landscape. For centuries weary travelers have stopped here to fill their canteens and water barrels, refresh their horses and oxen, and rest for a spell before trekking onward. In the soft rock of these cliffs they have left their marks. Names, dates, cavalry units, a rough sketch of a cross-topped church, a flowery signature in old fashioned script — historical graffiti that tells a story of the travelers who passed over these plains.

The site of these historic inscriptions is El Morro National Monument near Ramah, New Mexico. It’s a fascinating destination for an RV tour of the Southwest. If you look carefully, you can find prehistoric American Indian petroglyphs carved into the rock. Spanish provincial governor Don Juan de Onate left his mark in 1605. Conquistador Don Diego de Vargas who led the Spanish charge against the Pueblo Indians passed this way in 1692. Pioneers, cavalry regiments, Union Pacific railroad workers, Civil War soldiers and others have carved their mark into the rock, leaving a rich and varied history of the American Southwest.

El Morro is now protected as a national monument site. If you visit, you won’t be able to leave a record of your own passing in the gray cliffs, but you’ll leave with a deeper sense of our country’s history.