El Morro

The drive from Gallup to Albuquerque is short, so we had plenty of time. We goofed off in the hotel room to let the sun get up, and to let the temperature warm up. (The low was 14 degrees.) We stopped at two small parks. The first was El Morro. Sandstone rocks are common in AZ, but rare in NM. This was one that stood alone.

Pen Long of Baltimore

El Morro was important because it had a pool of water in a desert area. Several people carved their names in this rock. Those who did it early enough were recording history. Those who did so later were creating graffiti. Those who do so today are breaking a federal law and can be fined. Among those who recorded history was Pen Long of Baltimore.

El Malpais Sink Hole

Our next stop was at another lava flow, El Malpais. We were on the back road, which had the El Malpais information center, which was closed for the winter. But they had a brochure with a map in a box on the gate. (The visitor center is 20 miles away right off I-40. We stopped there later on to use their bathrooms.) We decided to walk part of the El Calderon trail. The scenery wasn’t up to the trail name. Neither stop was awesome, but it was lunch time, the wind was down, and the sun felt good; so we ate lunch on the El Calderon trail.

It’s all downhill, from here to the Mississippi River

We were surprised to cross the continental divide (I thought it was further west). Our last stop of the day was the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. This brand new museum was across the street from our hotel. It was heavily biased. I think we can allow the Pueblo Indians a little leeway. However, they seemed to say that they deserved their lands more than the other North American Indians because they were civilized. Nevertheless, it was a good museum. We went back there to eat dinner at their restaurant, the Pueblo Harvest Cafe. The food was excellent.

I guess we’ve been spoiled living on the Arizona Strip. When we arrived in Albuquerque, we both noticed the air was quite hazy. I asked several locals. None of them had noticed the haze. Tomorrow we’re off to Amarillo, TX.