Checking Out Ramah Falls

If you’re planning a visit El Morro National Monument (Inscription Rock), you might want to consider Ramah Falls as a very cool add-on to your adventure. El Morro itself with its inscriptions, water hole, and two-mile hike to the Ancestral Pueblo ruins on top of the rock face more than warrants a trip on its own. Checking out Ramah Falls will only make your adventure better, and it’s only 14 more miles of driving!

When you get to Ramah Falls, don’t expect to see a huge surge of rushing water pouring over a cliff. Instead you’ll find an amazing a series step-like falls inside a heavily wooded sandstone canyon carved by a small creek coming off the flanks of the Zuni Mountains. The small creek that carved the canyon only flows during the Spring snowmelt. Most of the year the creek will be dry. And even after a heavy rain there will be pools of water rather than a rushing stream.

But with that being said, the eroded sandstone formations of pour holes, arches, narrow slots, sandstone steps are more than worthwhile to check out. It is an amazing surprise that you never would have suspected when you got out of your car and started walking toward the woods!

To reach the falls, continue 6.3 miles west on New Mexico Highway 53 from the El Morro to Canyon Road on the right-hand side of the road. You can identify Canyon Road by the sign for the Timber Lake subdivision. Turn right (north) onto Canyon Road. As a bonus, you’ll run into a prehistoric cliff dwelling off to your left in about 0.6 miles. You can’t climb up to the dwelling, but you can get out of your car for closer look.

After checking out the cliff dwelling, continue north on Canyon Road. You’ll soon pass thru an entrance gate for the Timber Lake subdivision (2.7 mile north of NM 53). Keep going north; the scenery on the drive is fantastic. The scenery alone makes this drive worthwhile. If your car has a built-in navigation system you might notice a name change for the road. Don’t worry, you’re still on the right road.

In 6.3 miles from NM 53 you’ll reach a junction with Forest Service Road 157. Turn to the right. In 1.1 miles (plus or minus), you’ll reach a small road that crosses private land going off to the right. Since this is the only access to the falls, it’s best to be respectful of this privilege as there is no need to give the land owner a reason to shut down access with a locked gate and a No Trespassing sign.

The falls are now very close. You only need to drive on this road for a quarter mile or less. Feel free to park your car whenever it becomes too uncomfortable for you to drive. Once you get out of your car, just continue walking on road. In less than a quarter of mile, you’ll be on National Forest land and the road will have turned into a footpath. Continue another quarter mile you’ll be in the middle of the sandstone formations. Now is the time to start exploring.

If you look at a topo map, you’ll see that it notes the falls as being further upstream. The topo map is a bit misleading as Ramah Falls is a continuing series of small falls rather than one large fall. In fact, I found too many obstacles to reach the falls shown on the map. Perhaps, there is a trail (that I’ll find on my next visit) above the canyon to make it easier to reach them.

Regardless of how far up the stream you go, you’ll find plenty to grab your attention. The nice thing about Ramah Falls is that you can make it a short walk to check out the pour holes and arches, or a more involved scramble to get further upstream.

If you would still like to do some more exploring after checking out the falls, you might want to check out the village of Ramah. It’s only another mile further west on NM 53.

The small community of Ramah was settled by Mormons in the 1880s. It was built to the conventions of a proper Mormon community that were established by Joseph Smith in the early days of the Mormon church. If you drive around Ramah, you’ll see very large residential blocks with very wide street rights-of-way that are ubiquitous to a Mormon community. You’ll even see plenty of poplar trees which is another characteristic of a Mormon community. Should you ever travel to Utah or wherever else Mormons settled, you’ll see the same wide streets and large residential blocks.

With this our wandering adventure west of El Morro is done. However, if you’re not quite ready to call it a day, you can continue another 20 miles west on NM 53 to Zuni Pueblo. It, too, is more than worthwhile to check out!