Petroglyphs, petroglyphs and more petroglyphs - if you find them fascinating, this is the place for you!
We stayed in Albuquerque for exploring the region. It was extremely hot so we tried to restrict what we were doing in the middle of the day.
Petroglyph National Monument is spread over a wide area with well over a thousand petroglyphs carved onto the basalt lava rock. The information centre has a large number of leaflets available describing all of the various trails, the geology of the region and the cultural significance of the petroglyphs.
About 150-200,000 years ago lava oozed from a crack in the landscape, one of many formed by earthquakes in the area. The lava cooled and hardened on top of a layer of sand and gravel which eroded over the years causing the lava sheet to collapse and forming the West Mesa escarpment. The escarpment stretches for 17 miles along Albuquerque's western landscape and is where the Ancient Puebloans and Spanish settlers carved over 23,000 petroglyphs.
The basalt is high in iron, manganese and calcium. The combination of these minerals gives the basalt a pale grey colour. Over time exposure to oxygen and water cause the iron and manganese to oxidise creating a dark grey patina, called desert varnish, on the surface. The petroglyphs were made by chipping away the desert varnish to reveal the pale rock beneath. Over the following centuries the exposed surface reoxidises and the extent to which this has occurred allows for a rough estimate of age.
The petroglyphs developed a particular style, called Rio Grande, around 1300 AD when the population increased dramatically. This coincided with the depopulation of areas such as Mesa Verde. Human figures, animals, and geometric designs are typical of the type of Petroglyphs seen in Petroglyph NM. They remain deeply significant to the Native Americans of the region.
The people built multi-storeyed pueblos along the Rio Grande. The largest pueblo close to Petroglyph NM is Piedras Marcadas pueblo and it is thought that the people of this pueblo carved most of the petroglyphs within the monument.
Piedras Marcadas Canyon - meaning the "canyon of the marked rocks" - is the northernmost area of Petroglyph NM. There are two trails, a 1.9 mile petroglyph-viewing trail which can be lengthened to a 3.3 mile round trip to include a walk along the mesa top. We opted for the petroglyph trail. It is very exposed and there is no escape from the punishing heat of the sun.
I've adjusted the contrast in most of the images, sometimes quite dramatically, as many of the petroglyphs were difficult to make out in the very bright conditions and even more difficult to photograph.
There are around 400 thought-provoking petroglyphs on the Piedras Marcadas trail. Despite visiting in late afternoon it was still extremely hot, around 35°C; probably best early in the morning.
We went to stop 5 then turned around, having seen many really great petroglyphs. There are handprint petroglyphs at Stop 6 according to the trail marker (found online).
Archaeologists believe that most of the images at Petroglyph NM were made 400 to 700 years ago, but some may be as much as 2,000-3,000 years old. We did all three trails at at Boca Negra Canyon where it's possible to see around 100 petroglyphs.
The Mesa Point Trail is a steep, uneven trail and it was very windy when we were there so felt quite hazardous!
Cliff Base Trail is short, only 245 metres in length.
Macaw Trail is even shorter, only 54 metres or so. It's very obvious why it is so-called!
The trail in Rinconada Canyon is a 2.2 miles loop with around 300 petroglyphs to see. The first petroglyphs appear three quarters of a mile in. Like Piedras Marcadas this an easy hike which we did very early in the morning, as soon as the parking lot was open, so that we weren't hiking in too hot conditions - again, there's no shade.
Like the other trails, there are many points where information is available, covering, for instance, why the petroglyphs might be here, visibility of the petroglyphs at different times of the day, what the petroglyphs might mean.
Best viewed early morning, or late in the day, though at any one time not all of the petroglyphs are visible or photographable. We certainly found this to be the case at all three sites.
Some of the pictures are very white indicating that they are modern graffiti - I've tried to spot these and not include them here. Modern graffiti tends to be scratched into the surface rather than chiselled. The Ancient Puebloans developed a chiselling technique using two rocks, one as a hammer, the other a chisel.
There are 1200 petroglyphs in Rinconada Canyon dating from 400-700 years old.
Rinconado Canyon has a wealth of really thought-provoking petroglyphs. It's sad to see so much gunshot damage and other vandalism. It's impossible to repair, once the petroglyphs are damaged beyond recognition they are gone for good.
