A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro (the headland) a popular campsite. Ancestral Puebloans and Spanish and American travelers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs for hundreds of years. We invite you to make El Morro a stopping point during your travels.
Trails
A ½-mile loop trail leads to the historic pool and past hundreds of inscriptions and petroglyphs. Continuing to the top of the bluff for the breathtaking views and Ancestral Puebloan ruins makes this a two-mile loop trail.
Explore El Morro and nearby El Malpais National Monuments. In the summer we offer Ranger-led programs; guided hikes, cave tours, bat flights and special events. For the current schedule click on "more" for a downloadable PDF file.
Inscriptions and petroglyphs carved into soft sandstone won't be here forever. Find out what the National Park Service is doing to delay the effects of weathering, erosion and time on these fascinating links to our past.
At an elevation of 7,219 feet (2200 meters) winters can be cold, snowy and windy. Summers are warm with afternoon thunder showers in July and August. more...
Did You Know? It is estimated that the mesa-top pueblo at El Morro National Monument contained about 875 rooms. However to see it is deceiving—only a small corner of the pueblo was ever excavated. more...
