PETROGLYPH VIEWING

I don't know how it happened, but this morning everyone was up and out by 9:00 AM. They wanted to take a 2.2 mile hike in Rinconada Canyon and it gets pretty darn hot here by noon.The Petroglyph National Monument is very close to where we are staying and that was where they planned to go. There are three canyon hikes with petroglyphs in the National Monument area. The one they chose today was a relatively easy hike, mostly in sandy soil. Even that early in the morning, it was already getting warm. There were over 300  drawings on the volcanic rocks along the trail, many of which are so high up the canyon that they are difficult to see. There were plenty of others that were very close to the
trail and they tried to take some pictures of them.

It was hard to tell which drawings were real and which were graffiti as this trail has been open to the public for so long. They stopped at the Visitors Center and talked to the ranger about what they saw and he said that most of the marking on the rocks were from the ancient people that once traveled through this canyon. At some point in time the canyon was part of a land grand and used by sheep ranchers. They also left there markings and brands on some of the rocks.

There's talk about another petroglyph expedition tomorrow to Boca Negra Canyon to see another 100 petroglyphs. Personally, I can't picture these guys getting up early two days in a row. We'll see.