How In The Hell Did We Miss Woodpecker Arch ?

 January 9, 2022

   I need a visually strong opening for our Mickey Free story and I'm envisioning something like this.

Daily Whip Out:

"He Rode Higher Into the Sierra Madre"

"So there we were trailing along behind Mickey Free and we went straight up into the dark heart of the Sierra Madre with Doroteo Arrango and his bandidos on one side and the Mad Russian and his Rurales on the other. We rode like that for several days and, I for one, never got a wink of sleep."

—James Young

   And now, for something completely different. . .

The Bells Miss Woodpecker Arch

   In the late eighties, our family drove to Cubero, New Mexico for Craig Hamilton's wedding to Anna Bebo. This was the trip where Tommy got the boxing gloves in Show Low and there's a funny family photo of him lying outside our tent (we actually camped!?) at El Morro Rock near Ramah, New Mexico with the gloves on. The joke being he was knocked out and is on the ground with the boxing gloves. One of my favorite photos was taken at this same place. El Morro Rock (east of Zuni) is where some of the Spanish explorers stopped to write their names in the sandstone and I believe the oldest is "Paso por aqui" (passed by here), Don Juan de Onate, April of 1605. We looked at the inscriptions and then decided we would take the hike, which goes around the rock face to the north side and up on top. One of the family members was rather cranky about this and pouted the entire way. I think you can spot which one of us that would be in this photo I took along the trail.

Deena, Kathy and Mr. Pouthead

on the El Morro Rock trail

   What's weird is, one of the most famous outcroppings on the cliff face, directly behind them, and to the left, is this dramatic arch.

Woodpecker Arch at El Morro National Park

   Dang! How did we miss that?! 

Road Trip Alert!

I think we need to go back and check it out, don't you? Air up the tires, load up the CDs, it's time for a road trip.

“We all have that one friend who is either on a roadtrip or planning a roadtrip or thinking about a road-trip or talking to people who are on a roadtrip or posting quotes about a roadtrip.”

—Old Vaquero Saying