I recently traveled out to New Mexico with my Grandma, Wanda, 85 years old. She had open heart surgery last year and our goal was to take a trip the following year. She wanted to go back and show me the Southwest, the places loved by her and my grandpa. She had each day packed-full of adventures and this day was no different. In the morning, we went to pick up my ring that Aaron Anderson was making. While we were waiting, Lester James was working on cutting and polishing the turquoise and other stones on his new bracelet. I immediately fell in love with it and I had to have it. Even though he was in the beginning process, he told me that he would have it done that day.  We stayed there until about noon and then headed to Zuni because they were having a Festival.

By the time we made our way out to El Morro, it was 4:58. We made it up to the visiter center, only to find out that they closed at 5. My Grandma was devastated that we couldn’t walk up to it. I was able to stop and capture this beautiful timelapse above.

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A little history on El Morro (from the National Park Website)

From a main east-west trail, dating from antiquity, rises the great sandstone promontory of El Morro. Over the centuries, those who traveled this trail stopped to camp at the shaded oasis beneath these cliffs. They left the carved evidence of their passing — symbols, names, dates, and fragments of their stories that register the cultures and history intermingled on the rock.

The first inscription carved at El Morro was that of Governor Don Juan de Onate in 1605, 15 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.