Petroglyphs - also known as Rock Carvings.....

What are Petroglyphs ?  Well, this information is taken directly off of the Petroglyphs National Monument Website - it explains it much better than I can and also have some really terrific facts about Albuquerque and it's history.


Petroglyphs 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" on the surface of the rock was pecked off, the lighter rock underneath was exposed, creating the petroglyph. Archaeologists have estimated there may be over 25,000 petroglyph images along the 17 miles of escarpment within the monument boundary.

It is estimated 90% of the monument's petroglyphs were created by the ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians. Puebloans have lived in the Rio Grande Valley since before 500 A.D., but a population increase around 1300 A.D. resulted in numerous new settlements. It is believed that the majority of the petroglyphs were carved from about 1300 through the late 1680s.

The arrival of Spanish people in 1540 had a dramatic impact on the lifestyle of the pueblo people. In 1680 the Pueblo tribes rose up in revolt of Spanish rule, and drove the settlers out of the area and back to El Paso, Texas. In 1692 the Spanish resettled the area. As a result of their return, there was a renewed influence of the Catholic religion, which discouraged participation by the Puebloans in many of their ceremonial practices. As a consequence, many of these practices went underground, and much of the image making by the Puebloans decreased. A small percentage of the petroglyphs found within the park pre-date the Puebloan time period, perhaps reaching as far back as B.C. 2000. Other images date from historic periods starting in the 1700s, with petroglyphs carved by early Spanish settlers.

Now, I'm not just writing you about it!  I went there!!!!  It was awesome.

Here is a picture of the Sandia Mountains from right near the Petroglyphs.  It is located on the other side of town from where Ms. Dee lives.  The mountains sure seem far away - and check out those crazy clouds in the sky - it was creepy.

The Petroglyphs are on just the other side of that mesa!  Mesa means Table in Spanish - so one side of town has the Mountains the other side has the Mesas.....lol.

Another picture of the Sandias.  

We are here!  That is the Visitor's Center.

 

Inside the Visitor's Center, Ms. Dee spoke to a park ranger - we were getting a little board, so we took a picture!

 These are outside Kiva's that were used for many years!

Our first Petroglyph sighting at the Visitor Center!!!  It is actually carved in, you can see that it lays beneath the surface of the rock.  Amazing!

We had to drive to another section to walk the trail.  All those rocks up there are lava rocks!  There is a dormant volcano not too far away.  Dormant means it is inactive - so we didn't have to worry about that at all.

 But then we saw this!!!!  MacRae believes it is a Coyote paw print.  Now, we were worried!

Here are some closer shots of the lava rocks.

These holes may be for rattlesnakes, prairie dogs or rabbits.   We didn't see any of them, so we don't know.  But we were happy not to see any rattle snake tracks.

 There weer numerous holds in the rocks like little caves, we have no idea what was in them - if anything.  So, we didn't stay much longer after finding these.

Here is a picture of a petroglyph - it is just above the brush to the right - can you see it?  It looks almost like a turtle.

 Here is another one, this may have been a picture of a lizard.

 We kept looking up the hill, we wanted to make certain we weren't being followed - or hunted!

 Here are a few other pictures of the rocks close up - I hope you can see the petroglyphs in them!

Another animal paw print, MacRae - the animal guru here thinks this might be either a fox or a small dog.  I hope it was a dog!

 And this is a dog print.  The sand in the trail was extremely soft.  It is probably an arroyo when the rain comes.

 This is a Coyote print, you can tell by the claw marks because they dig into the ground more than the above dog paw print.

 We left after seeing the Coyote print!  Here is a picture at the end of the trail - that is Ms. Dee's car.  Can you see her silly antlers on it?

 She thinks her car is Rudolph!

  I hope you enjoyed our trip to the Petroglyphs!  We did, even though we were a little scared at times.....