National Park Service, New Mexico.
Imagine the refreshment of finding water after days of dusty travel. A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a sandstone bluff made El Morro (the headland) a popular campsite for hundreds of years. Here, ancestral Puebloans, Spanish, and American travelers carved over 2,000 signatures, dates, messages, and petroglyphs. Make El Morro National Monument a stopping point on your travels.
From Albuquerque, NM, or from the east: take Interstate 40 west to Grants. At exit 81, go south on Highway 53 for 42 miles to El Morro National Monument. From Flagstaff, AZ, or from the west: take Interstate 40 east to Gallup. At exit 20, go south on Highway 602 for about 31 miles. Turn east (left) onto Highway 53. El Morro is 25 more miles.