Day 12 – Petroglyph National Monument

Today we are heading to Petroglyph National Monument which is north and west of Albuquerque.   This National Monument is broken into several pieces.  And for our first adventure of the day we will be going to the Boca Negro Canyon trails. 

Boca Negro Canyon is located on a mesa of volcanic rock and our first hike is the Mesa Point trail.  Here I am along the trail in my fishing vest that I use to carry my extra lenses, batteries, and water.  Part of the narrow trail is paved.

As we begin our hike up the sometimes steep trail, there are petroglyphs all around; you just have to look for them.  The brochure points several of the more popular and easily visible pictorials.  This one looks like a lizard holding a lollypop. 

Some of them are quite remarkable and clear making them easily seen.  Although, depending on the time of day and the angle of the sun, you may not have a good contrasting view of the drawings.

Carmen stopped during our hike up the trail that climbs 700 feet to the top of the mesa, sometimes steep.  The volcanic rocks are strewn all over and jumbled on top of each other in places.  You can also see the housing development that has built up over the years.

More of the drawings, here part of the rock face has broken off nearly destroying the picture.  You wonder if this is because of vandals or naturally occurring.  I know some of the drawings seem to be a faked picture.  

What does this look like?

Is it the Big Chief or a warrior?

Here is the view from the top of the mesa looking back at the Boca Negro Canyon loop road.  There are a couple more trails in this loop that we will also hike.

On the way down, we saw other pictures we didn’t see on the way up.

Can you believe it we saw this rabbit, running away?  Until it ran, it was almost invisible.  In case you can not see it, the rabbit is in the middle of the picture.

Is this a space ship with conjoined twins? 

We left the Mesa Point trail and moved over to the Macaw trail.  Almost immediately we saw the pictures on this rock.  

Many of the pictures include human like figures, geometric designs, and animals, like this bird.

Although this looks like a mace like weapon, it is really a yucca pod. 

Here is the trail heading up to the top of the Macaw trail.  You can see how rocky the area is.

Leaving the Macaw trail, we now start hiking the Cliff Base trail.  Almost immediately we see this rock and the pictures on it.  Is that a spaceship on the right side?

Check out the snake picture. 

Here are a couple of petroglyphs that are interesting.  Not sure what they were suppose to represent, but they are quite the pictures.

Finely, I find a lizard in all of these rocks.  The only thing is it scurried down into a crack in the rocks and wouldn’t come out.  Fortunately for me it did stick it’s hear out in the sun so I could get this picture.

Wow, two animals in a row.  Here is a rabbit that I startled. 

We headed back to the car and drove over to the Riconada Canyon trail (2.2 mile round trip).  This is the longest hiking trail of the trails we have been on today and has over 20,000 petroglyphs.  Some of the drawings are recognizable as animals, people, crosses, and other more mysterious symbols and figures.  I see spacemen and space craft, but you decide.

Lizards and birds and frogs; oh my!  There is such a variety of pictographs on the rocks that is difficult to determine which one to show.

Finally, I found a lizard out in the open that I can get a picture of it. 

This rock had many pictorials on it, from people, shapes, snakes, and birds.  So many pictures on this rock it’s difficult to tell where to start.

This is one of the best glyphs we’ve seen.  It is very clear with sharp edges and a distinct shape.

On this trail, the ground is flat with the pictographs and rocks up on the hill to the right.  Like this one, some of the larger rocks have many pictographs on it. 

Oh my, another large rock with many petroglyphs on it.

This section of the National Monument has many clear glyphs, like this one. 

Near the end of our hike Carmen was getting hot and turned back.  I continued along the trail and found this large rock with even more petroglyphs on it.

Near the large rock with all of the pictures on it I found this additional picture.  It was tucked away in the rocks.  Is it my imagination or does it look like a landed spaceship?

As I’m on the trail starting to walk back to the car, I take a picture of what the trail and hill looks like where the petroglyphs were located.  Many of the rocks higher up the slope have pictures and you could spend days here looking for them. 

But wait!  On my way back I spot this picture which is facing me now.  I can not get over how clear this one is.  Almost looks like a lion.

Heading back to the motorhome and on route 66 we came upon this diner.  We stopped to eat dinner here; since it was interesting and better still they had malts!

We had a great day and saw many pictographs on the lava rocks and not to ignore any animals, we saw rabbits, lizards, and birds.  Recommend this to anyone, very interesting.  Tomorrow our plan is to go back up Sandia Peak only this time by the tram.