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| The watering hole that started it all |
We headed out of the Phoenix area on May 8 and angled
northeast to Springerville, AZ for our first day. We choose US 60 through the
Salt River Canyon because it is beautiful and we hadn’t been on it in for
probably 15 years. We were welcomed with cold, wind, and rain followed by a
heavy frost the next morning. The good old high elevation life. We headed out
in the sun the next morning and headed north on US 191 and then east on AZ
61/NM 53 to El Morro National Monument.
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| Inscription dating to 1709 |
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| Guide info for the 1709 inscription |
El Morro National Monument protects Puebloan ruins
and Inscription Rock. The history revolves around a pool of water that was for
centuries the only source of water for travelers within 100 miles. Puebloan
people, Zuni people, Spanish Explorers and finally Anglo travelers all lived
near, or stopped at, this water hole as a matter of survival. While there,
thousands of these people carved into the sandstone cliff nearby. Today you can
still see ancient petroglyphs mixed with inscriptions by Spaniards dating back
as far as 1626 and Anglo travelers in the 1800s. It is a wonderful time
capsule that will eventually erode away and be lost. The visitor center has a
self guided tour aid that tells the history and gives details on some of the
people who left inscriptions. Obviously, some historian(s) did a lot of
research for our benefit. It is fascinating and worth a visit.
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| Mix of ancient petroglyphs and Spanish inscription from 1639 |
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| Guide text for picture to left |
After a quick lunch we drove on to El Malpais NationalMonument near Grants, NM. This national monument’s main features are lava
flows, cinder cones and tubes. There is a natural arch on the edge where lava
meets sandstone. There are hiking trails that lead to the lava features but the
arch is a short walk from the road.
You may have noticed the picture change at the top. We have downsized. Since we are no longer full-timers we didn't need to be hauling around a 40 foot fifth wheel and we wanted to be more nimble to go places we couldn't with such a big rig. We'll test our ability to live in a tiny place. No, our other ones were not tiny, they were easy to live in full-time. Just for fun, here are some pictures of our RV history starting in 2010 when this blog started.
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| 2008 Holiday Rambler Ambassador at Cape Hatteras, Outer Banks |
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| 2015 Mobile Suites pulled by 2015 Ford F350 Dually at Yellowstone National Park |
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| 2019 Host Mammoth Camper on 2015 Ford F350 dually at El Morro National Monument, New Mexico |
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