10/18/07 (Thursday): I hardly know where to begin this blog. Today we went to Petroglyph National Monument. We've come so far, experienced so many different things, and still I can honestly say that we've had another fantastic day. I always knew we lived in a wonderful, diverse country, but I'm still flabbergasted by all our new adventures.






I'm going to break with tradition, and not try to explain these petroglyph pictures. I'll just give some history of the park and leave it up to you--what do you see?


A petroglyph is a picture or symbol carved into a rock (as opposed to a pictograph, which is painted). The petroglyphs we saw were mostly carved into basalt boulders that faced west or south on West Mesa, about 25 miles northwest of Albuquerque.



The escarpment where the petroglyphs are located is 17 miles long. It was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions about 150,000 years ago. The first two eruptions caused large flows of liquid lava, which followed the courses of ancient arroyos. Subsequent eruptions created cinder cone peaks.


Later, tributaries of the Rio Grande eroded the sand beneath the basalt caprock, and huge pieces were strewn along the face of the escarpment. After the boulders are exposed for many years, they develop a black "skin." The petroglyphs pierce this skin and reveal the white or gray coloration of the rock below. They're carved with stone tools.


There are over 20,000 petroglyphs, dating back hundreds of years and were mostly carved by the Pueblo people, although some were carved by Spanish shepherds. They include animals, insects and geometric forms. A quote I saw by a Pueblo elder sums up what I felt: "Each of these rocks is alive, keeper of a message left by the ancestors. . . . There are spirits, guardians; there is medicine. . . ." William F. Weahkee, Pueblo Editor.


The Park Service is not certain what all of the petroglyph images represent, and, in fact, says that sometimes "it is . . . not appropriate to reveal meanings of some images. American Indian tribes have different versions of meanings. For them, any one image may have complex or multiple meanings that depend upon the placement of the images." Whatever that means! Anyhow, most of the interpretive signs didn't even attempt to explain the images, which is kind of a shame, because it was really hard to tell what some of them were.


There are some simple crosses on some of the rocks. Historians believe these simple forms were Native American symbols of north, south, east and west. The more complex cross figures were carved by Spanish sheep herders and are Christian symbols. Another good sign explained that the petroglyphs that were "filled in" were older than the outline figures. They were carved by Archic Indians as long ago as 1,000 B.C.


Some of the later petroglyphs included plants, seeds and agricultural icons, because the Pueblo Indians were involved with agriculture, unlike the Archaic Indians, who were hunter/gatherers.


















We hiked three trails in the Boca Negra Canyon portion of West Mesa, and then we drove to another part of the park where there are trails up the cones of 3 extinct volcanoes.












Wiley didn't find the petroglyphys nearly as interesting as I did, but he enjoyed the volcano hike a lot. Can you see him on the very top of the volcano, looking like he's about to fly off?!













The whipped cream and cherry on top of our super day was spotting this ladder-backed woodpecker and having a roadrunner run right up to our truck and peer up at us. It's the first time we've seen either of these birds.












Just one more adventure in the continuing saga of Joyce and Wiley's great adventure!