El Morro National Monument

Frank "Boss" Pinkley

Trip planning guide for El Morro National Monument.

In spring 2011, the SCPN-NAU School of Communication collaboration began with a multimedia studies course focused on documenting park resources and resource projects. The class was taught by NAU professors Laura Camden and Peter Friederici.

A lot of articles have been written about the history of the National Park Service (NPS) arrowhead emblem. Many recycle the same content and outdated information that has largely come from the NPS itself. Challenging the traditional story has revealed new sources of information—and two previously overlooked arrowhead designs—that rewrite the arrowhead origin story.

When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.

Engravings along the base of El Morro National Monument's Inscription Rock range from prehistoric petroglyphs to the earliest known European inscription, Don Juan de Oñate's engraved memorial, dated 1605. Dramatic new evidence — a range of metal artifacts — has emerged linking El Morro with the earliest major Spanish entrada in the desert Southwest – the 1540-1542 expedition of Capitan General Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

The combination of high. elevation and a semi-arid climate makes the Colorado Plateau particularly vulnerable to climate change. Climate models predict that over the next 100 years, the Southwest will become warmer and even more arid, with more extreme droughts than the region has experienced in the recent past.

Ever wondered what those dark lines were on the rock walls of canyon country? These black, brown, and red streaks are called desert varnish.