Window Rock / El Morro NHS
Visiting Window Rock, Arizona | Navajo Nation Museum | Driving from Window Rock, AZ to El Malpais National Monument in NM | January 2026
After leaving Petrified Forest National Park, we drove East on I-40 towards the AZ/NM border — a stretch of I-40 that we haven’t driven in either direction since we first moved to AZ in 2013! As we neared the border, we left the interstate behind and took AZ-12 North. There were small flurries in the air at this point, but nothing that was sticking to the road. There was some on the red canyon walls surrounding us, making the scenery even more beautiful than usual. We were filled with love for the state once again, and all the beauty that can be found on its highways. We definitely made the right decision to come this direction rather than stick to the interstate!
When we arrived in Window Rock, we drove to the Navajo Nation Museum. We had read online that travelers often use this lot to park overnight, and never have any issues. We were a little hesitant as we don’t like to be in the way, especially on tribal land, but we decided that if we paid the museum a visit that it would be okay. We ended up spending 2 hours walking through and learning so much about the Navajo Nation history — a lot of it was hard to read, learning about all the terrible things that white settlers did to them, the Long Walk and time at Bosque Redondo, and how hard it was for them to draw up their agreement and get to live on their land. And then learning further about how the government forced them to kill off a large amount of their livestock during the dust bowl was also a difficult read. We were also reading through all of this while ICE agents were deploying in Minnesota, the day Renee Good was murdered, which internally had me spiraling over everything this country has done, past and present…has our leadership ever done anything good and just and with people’s best interest in mind? All that to say, despite how hard it was, we thought the museum was excellent and definitely worth the visit. It ended with an exhibit featuring art by the Navajo, which was a beautiful way to end.
We stepped outside the museum to find that the area had completely transformed into a winter wonderland while we were inside. The ground was covered in a layer of wet snow, each tree branch was lined, and it was continuing to fall with no end in sight. But best of all, was the surrounding sandstone cliffs were also covered in snow, making it the most beautiful scenery. We were both awestruck and a little concerned that this would end up being more than we bargained for. But the decision had been made for us, we would definitely be staying in the lot for tonight, and what we did tomorrow was tomorrow’s problem!
We ran the heater throughout the night and stayed warm enough in the van. The next morning, Curtis had a meeting that was slated to take 6 hours, from 6am til noon. At first, I stayed in bed while he joined the meeting, then when the sun came up and it started warming up just a little, Curtis cleared the snow off the van and we moved to a grocery store parking lot just so we wouldn’t be loitering in the same spot for too long. We had breakfast and Curtis continued on with his meeting while the sun slowly melted the snow in the lot around us.
As soon as Curtis was finished, we drove to make one more stop here to see the window rock — of course! Once we turned off the main road heading towards the rock, the streets were less clear, but we were still able to make it to the rock. We parked, got out to walk around and take our pictures, then hurried back to the warmth of the van. It was absolutely worth seeing though, especially with the top covered in snow! I can’t believe that our first ever snow while in the van happened while we were in Arizona, but also, I wouldn’t have it any other way — it was our favorite state in a way we had never seen it before!
We got back on the highway and crossed into New Mexico, and were pleased to find that the highways were mostly cleared and we didn’t have any issue carrying out our plans for the day. We took 264 East to US-491, then South to NM-53. Our next stop was at El Morro National Monument. We had visited this park in December of 2021, though on that visit we had come too late to hike the trail to Morro Rock and instead just camped at the campground in 16 degree weather. Today we started at the visitor center, where we inquired about their campground, but they advised us to instead consider camping at the free campground in El Malpais instead since it was at lower elevation, and they were expecting frigid temps tonight…even colder than 16 degrees. We agreed with their reasoning, but thankfully still had enough daylight hours to hike the trail here and make our way over to El Malpais.
We set out on the Inscription Rock loop trail, which was mostly cleared from snow aside from in the shade. We thoroughly enjoyed this walk, which gave us the history of the people who used to live in the area and those who traveled through, seeking water and shade from the small oasis that the cliffs provided. We definitely weren’t looking for that today, but we appreciated seeing the signatures that were left behind on the rocks. There were signs that would tell the history of some of those people who crossed the country by foot and stopped here to leave their mark. As we were leaving, Curtis got some book recommendations from the ranger to continue learning about the area.
Finally, we made the drive from El Morro to El Malpais, enjoying the scenery and watching the snow disappear as we dropped in elevation. We remembered our last visit to this area, when we hiked to one of the craters. Unfortunately the ice caves were closed once again, so we weren’t able to see those. We took NM-53 to I-40, then exited shortly after on NM-117 and drove a few miles South to our campsite for tonight. We found a spot in the Joe Skeen Campground, which was a free camping area with designated sites with picnic tables and beautiful views. There were a few others camping here, though everyone stayed in their rigs and out of the cold. Tonight broke our record for coldest night ever camping, with the low around 5 before windchill. Our previous lowest temp was 16 degrees, both in the tent in El Morro in 2021, and in the van near the coast in South Carolina in January of 2024. Kind of funny when we realize it’s these Southern states that are betraying us, but it makes sense when you consider we usually try to go South when camping in the winter!
