If I Were Going...: Petroglyph National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument

Back in 2014, I stopped at Petroglyph National Monument on my way home from a trip exploring New Mexico. As we were leaving the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta this year, I asked Caty if she wanted to make a quick stop because she hadn’t been there.

Of course she did.

So, we drove through Albuquerque to, first, the Visitor Center so Caty could get a stamp and, second, to Piedras Marcadas ("marked rocks") Canyon, which has quite a few petroglyphs on a short trail.

Lots of different drawings

It’s an interesting archeological and natural spot because it sits right behind an upscale neighborhood and you have to drive past banks, gas stations and fast-food restaurants to get there. You park in a neighborhood park.

Aerial map: NPS

About half the few visitors we encountered were visiting the petroglyphs and half were walking their dogs, including one bulldog with an obvious breathing issue (I kept thinking a monster was stalking us).

Just a typical neighborhood walk

Anyway, we parked and set out. Unfortunately, the weather (the same weather that had ruined our last morning at the Fiesta) made a prolonged hike unwise. It also made carrying lots of camera gear risky. I said as I left the car (and my 600mm lens in it) that hiking with only a wide-angle lens guaranteed we’d see something cool, like a Mountain Lion.

That didn’t happen, but, almost immediately (but not immediately enough to fetch the lens), we saw a Cooper’s Hawk that flew by and landed on a rock, where it sat and sat and sat while we snapped photos that would (and did) turn out to be futile. It was just a bit too far away.

Posing as if we had long lenses (yes this is cropped a great bit)

I couldn't even get a good one as it flew away.

I made it black and white for effect (and to cover how bad the shot was)

About the Park

Petroglyph National Monument, which stretches 17 miles along the western side of town, protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including dormant five volcanic cones, hundreds of archeological sites and an estimated 24,000 images carved by Ancestral Pueblo peoples and early Spanish settlers.

Established as a National Monument in 1990, 7,239-acre Petroglyph is an "urban park" cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division.

We didn’t have time to visit the volcanoes, but we did see a lot of petroglyphs, which are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone.

When the desert varnish (or patina) on the surface of the rock is chipped off, the lighter rock underneath is exposed, creating the petroglyph. What is fascinating is that hundreds of years after the surfaces are chipped, you can still see the carvings.

The upper right is naturally eroded rock that looks like an Owl

Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex.

Approximately 200,000 years ago, six volcanic eruptions created the thick basalt and lava cliffs that was, after significant erosion, apparently became a great canvass for carving. Some of the petroglyphs are 3,000 years old, but most were created between 1300 and 1680. At this time, Pueblo adobe villages were being built along the Rio Grande River and at the base of the Sandia Mountains.

The Petroglyphs

I have yet to find any explanations of the petroglyphs. Some seem obvious …