Through The Land Of Rock Pictures
- Natasha
- Feb 28, 2016
- 2 min read
There seems to be a lot of National Parks and Monuments down in New Mexico, because we’re heading to yet another one today; Petroglyph National Monument. We didn’t head out until after lunch because it was a bit chilly outside, kind of overcast. We stopped first at the visitor’s centre to find out the park’s policy on dogs, and learned that they are allowed on most of the paths, except for the one paved trail. We decided to do Rinconada Canyon, which was about 3.5kms long, with around 300 petroglyphs visible from the path. Petroglyphs are
images carved into the volcanic rock in the area, most of which were carved by the Pueblo people, who frequented the area from the 1300’s until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 1600s. At that point, the carvings left by the natives mixed with carvings left by the Spanish, most of which were pictures of sheep and crosses. Because the marking are so old and worn, some of them are impossible to see at certain times of the day, depending on the angle of the
sun. Unfortunately we couldn’t go and look at the markings up close when we were on the trail, because the monument has been having some problems with vandalism and theft. We actually saw one rock that had had it’s petroglyphs carved out and stolen, which seemed kind of dumb to me. Honestly, what’s the point of stealing it? The hike was pretty easy, although it was pretty hot because we were out in the open the whole time, and the petroglyphs were cool to see. After we finished the loop, we headed back to the truck and drove around through Albuquerque’s Historic District. They had a pretty nice museum that we thought we might check out if we came back to walk around. After we got back, we ate some dinner while watching the Oscars. R.I.P Leonardo DiCaprio Oscar meme. Also the Academy might want to get in touch with what the public is actually watching. I’m still pissed off that Star Wars didn’t win anything and was beaten by Mad Max twice. No thanks. And Chris Rock was hilarious as usual. Good times. Peace out m8s.
