Inscriptions and a Cinder Cone

Today we set out to travel south on NM 53 to visit and hike at the El Calderon area of El Malpais and the El Morro National Monument. We knew it would be rather cold, but the wind would be less of a problem than it was yesterday.

We stopped at the NPS Information Center and picked up some brochures and then went on to El Morro National Monument (El Morro is Spanish for "the promontory"). People also refer to it as Inscription Rock, because of the petroglyphs and inscriptions left by Ancestral Puebloans, Spanish explorers, and Anglo settlers on their way to California.

This place has attracted both people and animals for millennia, partly because the pool at the base provides a reliable water source, very important in this desert landscape.

We took the half mile trail around the base of Inscription Rock, with a laminated flip chart showing only a few of the nearly 2,000 inscriptions. Many are faded or otherwise difficult to see, and it was easier when we had some clue what we were looking for.

We intended to walk the two-mile trail on top of the bluff, but the icy wind froze our fingers, and we knew we would be even more exposed to the wind if we climbed up on the rock. We decided to leave and go to the Ancient Way Cafe for lunch. The young woman we had met on the Narrows Rim Trail a couple of days ago recommended it. We wanted to get something warm and stay inside long enough to thaw our fingers, so we saved our packed lunch to have for supper later.

Highway 53 is known as the Ancient Way, which explains the name of the cafe.

The Ancient Way Cafe is a unique place to enjoy a slow cooked breakfast or lunch made and served with love. On Friday and Saturday evenings gourmet dinners are limited to one special dish planned and prepared by our chefs with a different theme each week.

We had some delicious hot coffee while we perused the menu and waited for our food to arrive. We had the soup of the day, homemade tomato basil, and split a wonderful sandwich that featured turkey, avocado, bacon and sauce on homemade bread. All yummy and a great place to slow down and warm up.

Next we went to the El Calderon area. We found some handwarmers in the truck and broke them out. We visited Junction Cave, a cave formed by a lava tube. We had picked up a free cave permit earlier. We didn't plan to go in very far. This was definitely our first descent into a wild cave, involving boulder scrambling and watching out for loose rocks and dark dropoffs. We didn't get very far from the entrance, but it was enough to get some sense of what actual spelunking would be like.

My puny little flashlight didn't reach very far, and I soon became aware that a headlamp would be a definite asset. I needed both hands to scramble over the rocks.

We went on to complete the three-mile hike out to El Calderon cinder cone and back. The sun was out part of the time, and we were mostly somewhat protected from the wind, but our hand warmers were still nice to have in our pockets.