Publo Park to El Morro

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August 19, Friday – Pueblo Park to El Morrow
Left Pueblo Park and headed towards the Zuni Pueblo. After I got there I found out I could only see the pueblo as part of a guided tour which was OK but I had to wait an hour and a half for the next tour.
I kicked it around but decided that there are plenty of pueblos in New Mexico and so if I didn’t get to see this one I would see another. So I drove on to the El Morrow National Monument. The first thing I did was go by the campground and staked out a campsite for the night ($5.00). Then I went by the visitor center and got a map for the El Morrow Monument. There were two tours, one a .5 mile hike to the base of the monument which takes you to the pool of rainwater/snowmelt which was the reason desert travelers were attracted to this location in the first place. The other was a strenuous 2 mile hike which took you to the other end of the monument then up to the top and then across and around a canyon within the rocks and to a ruined pueblo. While a 2 mile hike isn’t that bad, the continuous climb of the trail plus the 7, 219 ft elevation made for a grueling hike. Any reasonable and prudent man would have waited till the next day to go , but I didn't. Because of the altitude I had to stop and catch my breath several times but I made it. The view from the top was awesome and the pueblo interesting. It originally contained over 875 rooms but only a small part was excavated.
After completing the hike I drove back about 12 miles to the nearest town and got some New Mexican food at the Stagecoach Restaurant, sort of as a reward. It was very good.
There are 31 photo's with this entry.

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