After watching church service on Youtube, and getting our Mexican Food Sunday fix, we drove over to Petroglyph National Monument. We had visited Petroglyph National Monument on a previous trip to Albuquerque and hiked the trail by the visitor center. We were not impressed by those petroglyphs. Since we wanted to collect our passport stamp (#30), we decided to try a different trail. After viewing the park film, and talking with the ranger, we settled on the Rinconda Canyon trail. It was a short drive to the trailhead from the visitor center.
The escarpment where the petroglyphs are located is in the Rio Grande Rift. The Rio Grande Rift was formed hundreds of millions or years ago and runs from southern Colorado to Chihuahua Mexico. The Rio Grande river cut through the rift. To the northwest of present day Albuquerque, six volcanoes formed in the rift and release large amounts of lava forming the mesa. The escarpment was created when softer soils under the lava were eroded away causing a shelf that eventually collapsed. The resulting chunks of rock oxidized over centuries giving the rock the black color we see today.
The escarpment is 17 miles long and has over 23,000 petroglyphs. Most of the petroglyphs were made by Pueblo Indians over thousands of years. Later petroglyphs were made by Spanish settlers in the 1700s. Some of the petroglyphs were damaged before the monument was declared by congress in the 1980s. As we hiked the Rinconda Canyon trail, we searched the rocks for Petroglyphs. The trail was a hundred feet back from the base of the escarpment, which made it very hard to pick out any petroglyphs. The few we saw were so far back, even with a 135mm telephoto lens, we could not get a good picture. We were so disappointed we considered turning back. But a woman walking the trail for exercise told us to keep going because the trail would bring us closer to the escarpment further along and there were some great petroglyphs to be seen. She also told us that the trail used to be right at the bottom of the escarpment and you could climb up into rocks for closer views. But between people damaging the petroglyphs and the trail getting washed out, the park decided to move the trail back and close off the escarpment. So we trudged on and at about the one mile mark the trail finally came close to the escarpment and sure enough, there were some great petroglyphs! On the way back Leslie made the critter sightings of 3 rabbits and three lizards. Anyone wanting to hike this trail, bring a good set of binoculars and 300mm lens for your camera if you want to see more of the 3500 petroglyphs that are supposed to be along this trail.
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