Discover El Morro National Monument in western New Mexico, where a desert pool, ancient petroglyphs, Spanish inscriptions, and the ruins of Atsinna Pueblo tell the story of travelers who passed this sandstone bluff for centuries.

Rising from the high desert of western New Mexico, El Morro National Monument is a sandstone bluff that has served as a landmark for centuries. At its base, a year-round pool of water once drew ancestral Puebloans, Spanish explorers, and pioneers moving west. Each left their mark on the cliff face, where more than 2,000 carvings remain — from petroglyphs to elaborate Spanish inscriptions to simple initials scratched by settlers.

A short trail leads past the shaded pool and beneath the inscriptions, while a longer route climbs to the mesa top and the ruins of Atsinna Pueblo. From here, the view stretches across the Zuni Mountains and the black lava fields of El Malpais, a landscape that has shaped both history and tradition in the region.

“R.H. Orton, Capt, 1st Cal, Cav. 1866”

Governor Eulate is believed to have left the longest inscription on El Morro.

The inscription reads: “Year of 1716 on the 26th of August passed by here Don Feliz Martinez, Governor and Captain General of this realm to the reduction and conquest of the Moqui (Hopi) and [with him] the reverend Father Friar Antonio Camargo, Custodian and ecclesiastical judge.”

Spanish inscription translated as, “The 28th day of September of 1737, the illustrious lord Don Martin de Elizacochea, Bishop of Durango, arrived here, and the day following, went on to Zuni.”

El Morro National Monument is not only a striking natural formation but also a layered archive of movement and memory. Standing at twilight, when the sandstone glows and the inscriptions come into sharp relief, it is easy to see why travelers across so many centuries paused here — and why it remains a place worth seeking out today.