El Morro National Monument
A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro a popular campsite for hundreds of years.
A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro a popular campsite for hundreds of years. Weary travelers found comfort and refreshment after days of dusty travel.
Here, Ancestral Puebloans as well as Spanish and American travelers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs into the bluff. Atop the promontory rests the remains of a mesa top pueblo where up to 1,500 people lived in 875 rooms between 1275 and 1350 AD.
Spanish explorers called it El Morro (The Headland) and the Zuni Indians call it “A’ts’ina” (Place of writings on the rock). Anglo-Americans now call it Inscription Rock.
We invite you to make El Morro a stopping point on your travels!