Visitor Center

The visitor center will be your first stop when you visit El Morro.

NPS Photo

Your visit to El Morro National Monument begins here. Park rangers and volunteers are available to answer your questions and orient you to the facilities and self-guided trails. Both trails begin at the visitor center.

Exhibits located in the visitor center span more than 700 years of human history in the El Morro area. A 15-minute video provides a great introduction to the cultural and natural history of El Morro.

The current visitor center was completed in 1964 as part of the Mission 66 effort. Mission 66 was a ten-year program created to revitalize the national parks in time for the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service in 1966.

 

The first ranger station was little more than a shack against the cliff.

NPS Photo

Early Contact Stations

Visitors to El Morro didn't always enjoy the modern conveniences of today's visitor center. In fact, the first ranger cabin, which also served as a tourist shelter, began as nothing more than a three-sided shed.

The advent of the public works programs of the Depression Era changed all that. A new custodian's residence and visitor contact station were completed in 1939 utilizing Public Works Administration (PWA) funds—one of the New Deal programs initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The 1939 sandstone residence now serves as the administrative offices for El Morro. Today it is, as well as the Mission 66 visitor center, as much a part of El Morro's history as the inscriptions themselves.