Albuquerque Adventure Part 0.9 (before the Trucks)

This is a long overdue pictorial sketch of our first field trip in Albuquerque! Greg and I went to the Petroglyphs National Parks Monument in Albuquerque. Petroglyphs are rock drawings - made within the last few hundred years, or even thousands of years ago by native Americans living here. The drawings record information, legends, and stories. Some point to water, or recount the tale of a great hunt, or suggest a good hunting place. We couldn't discern what they meant exactly, but we had fun interpreting them to ourselves and had a good hike. Only things which didn't immediately meet my satisfaction were the frequent (too frequent to be comfortable) rattlesnake warning signs, and it was an adventure in itself to be in this place where there was no shade and we were in the desert.

One of the rock drawings/carvings

The Panorama (almost) from the top of the mesa

We had a good time :) As you can see behind us, the mesa is covered with rock, most all of it is volcanic. The Indians carved on volcanic rock! This area has some very interesting geological history. We got the feeling that this is a veritable playground for anthropologists and geologists.

This is on top of the mesa. We were sure glad we lathered on the sunscreen!

As we were hiking along, keeping an eye out for snakes under the rocks, we were glad to find this little fellow! Thankfully, this fellow was the only wildlife we saw besides insects and birds. Phew!

One of the neat things about this park is how close you can get to the petroglyphs! Here we are with some - we interpreted this to be an eye - maybe a "watch out - rattlesnakes ahead"? I am SO glad we didn't see any!

One of our other favorite parts of this park was how peaceful and still it was. Though it is situated on the edge of Albuquerque suburbs, and is very close to traffic, etc. Once you get up into the hills among the Petroglyphs, it is almost like you can hear the hills tell a story, with the birds singing, the sand blowing, the sagebrush growing as it's done for years - so different from the dense suburb feel of Albuquerque. It was a great trip!