Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, NM

During our stay in Albuquerque in August, I had a day to myself to explore.  Petroglyph National Monument is a place Johnnie and I always pass en route to the relatives, but never get a chance to stop.  The idea of volcanic activity in Albuquerque is always surprising to me.  Fields of black lava rock are always startling.  I hadn’t had a chance to play with my camera, so Petroglyph seemed to be an ideal destination.

I started at the Visitor Center.  The ranger greeted everyone who came through the door.  He had maps, pamphlets, and general information.  He also had good advice — make sure you have a hat and water.  The Visitor Center sells both, especially water.  I thought I had enough (and I was wearing my Panama Jack), so I took the map and pamphlets and started on my journey.  It was a hot, sunny August day of low humidity (dry heat).  The dangerous side of dry heat is that you don’t realize how much you are sweating and how much water you lose.  Though I was continually sipping water (I had a liter), it wasn’t enough for the amount of time I spent in the sun.  At the end of my journey, I went back to the Visitor Center to purchase more water before returning to the campground.

Boca Negra Canyon was my destination.  Petroglyph has four main areas:  Boca Negra Canyon, Rinconada Canyon, Piedras Marcadas Canyon, and Volcanoes.  Volcanoes has an unpaved access road which I will take the next time I visit; Rinconada was under construction; Pietras Marcadas was a few miles away (to be explored on a future visit).  Boca Negra has trails and lots of petroglyphs.  I drove to the end of the main access road where there is a parking and a short hike to a ramada with picnic tables at the top of the mountain, Upper Canyon Area.  Beautiful view of the city of Albuquerque.  There were steps down to a lower viewing point.  My knees would not have handled the climb back up.

 

View of Albuquerque

Next I went to the three self-guided trails.  The  first trail, Mesa Point Trail, can include a climb to the top of the lava flow.  Again, the knees won’t cooperate. But, I took part of the trail and lots of pics of the petroglyphs.

Macaw Trail was the second trail.  The main feature is petroglyphs of macaws.  At the time the petroglyphs were created (1300 – 1600 AD), macaws must have been native to the area.  Now they are in Central and South America.

Macaw petroglyph

a second macaw petroglyph

Cliff Base Trail also has petroglyphs, some with depictions of humans.

Human figure 1

Human figure 2

Human figure 3

I wasn’t the only crazy person out in the heat, but I bet none of us were from the area.  Locals would have known to stay out of the sun or wait until a cooler time of the year.  I took photos of a flower I couldn’t identify.  At first, identification of the flower was my pretense for going to the Visitor Center.  I hoped the ranger would know.  As I pulled into the lot, I acknowledged my need for water was the driving force of my stop.  But, I would ask about the flower.  It was neat to show the ranger my photo on my camera and have him look at some id cards the resident botanist had created.  It seems that this may have been the first time the ranger had been able to use the id cards.  The ranger told me he was going to tell the botanist how useful the id cards are; I just missed meeting her.  Anyway, the plant was Silverleaf Nightshade (photo below).

Silver nightshade aka Horse Nettle

I loved the day exploring.  I also think that if I had to do it again, I might have been a botanist or a park ranger.  I still might get to be a park ranger.  I can dream.  Rving and traveling used to be a dream, now they are my reality.  All things are possible.