Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico is one of the biggest petroglyph sites in North America. It is a fun place for hiking and definitely worth a visit!
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Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico was a positive surprise to us. We visited over there thinking that we will see few petroglyphs on some smaller rocks but instead we found ourselves on big lava fields full of different kinds of rock carvings.
We fully enjoyed the trails in this park as they were very family friendly and fun for kids too. It was definitely worth a stop since we were in the area.
Petroglyph National Monument is located in Albuquerque, the biggest city of New Mexico. Albuquerque is most known for its balloon festival in October, and has a population of 557,000.
The climate in New Mexico is hot and dry during the summer but cool in the winter. When we were there it was April and it was slightly snowing on our drive over to Albuquerque. On the east side of the city is the Sandria Mountains.
What is the PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT?
The Petroglyph National Monument has been established to protect about 24,000 petroglyphs found in the west side of the city of Albuquerque. The oldest of them are over 3000 years old. The park was opened in 1990.
Over 100,000 years ago this area had multiple volcano eruptions which left behind six triangle-shaped hills, volcano cones, and 17 miles (27 kilometres) of basalt escarpment. This kind of hills are called “mesas” in New Mexico, so the escarpment was named West Mesa.
Basalt rock at West Mesa is very dark so the petroglyphs are very visible. That is believed to be one of the reason why they were made in the first place. Petroglyphs can also be called rock carvings as they were made by pecking directly on the rock surface. That is different from rock paintings.
About 90% of the petroglyphs in this area are made by American Indians. Many of them are from the time that Pueblo Indians resided in Rio Grande Valley which was between the years 1300 and 1680.
The Spanish settelers arrived in New Mexico in 1540 which hugely affected Pueblo Indians life. Due to new religion and customs many old traditions and rituals had to be done hidden. It is believed that some of the rock carvings are made by the settlers as they seem to be referring to different culture and believes.
Most of the petroglyphs represent animals like birds or snakes, and people, stars or stairs. We also saw some spirals but unfortunately it is not known what the spiral represents.
What to do at PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT?
We started our visit to Petroglyph National Monument from the Visitor Center. We got some tips from the ranger, picked up a map and Junior Ranger activity books for the kids. They were also showing a video of petroglyphs and the history of the area at the Visitor Center.
There are total of four trails in this park and they are located in different areas. Only one of them leaves from the Visitor Center but even then you can drive closer to the trail if you want. Rest of trails leave from further away and you need to drive over to the trailheads.
We chose the trail that was said to have the most petroglyphs. Piedras Marcadas Canyon Trail is a 1.8 miles round-trip (2.9 km) on a very easy, unpaved trail. It is great for families with kids but unfortunately it is not stroller friendly. There are over 400 petroglyphs along this trail.
Other trails in the park are in three different areas. Boca Negra Canyon has three trails that as combined are about 1 mile (1.6 km). Parts of the trails are paved and there are about 100 petroglyphs along these trails.
Rinconada Canyon has a 2.2 miles (4 km) long loop trail with about 300 petroglyphs. Rest of the trails are at Volcanoes Day Use Area but there aren’t any petroglyphs there.
We were hiking at least for couple of hours and enjoyed the beautiful weather. First petroglyphs were already pretty close to the trail head and they just kept getting better and better. We were trying to figure out what they all might of ment and how people were able to carve them on the rugged rocks.
Some of the petroglyphs were high up at the mesa so bringing some binoculars might be a good idea. And then some of them were so low that we were able to stand right next to them. I’m sure we missed some of the carvings between the rocks but still the amount of them was a delightful surprise.
Our kids were excited about doing their Junior Ranger books and trying to identify some animals in the park. We managed to see some rock squirrels and we believe we found coyote tracks. Other common animals in the area are millipedes, roadrunners and rattle snakes. We also found some Sand Sage.
Is Petroglyph National Monument worth it? – Our review
We really liked visiting Petroglyph National Monument and the fact that we were able to see the petroglyphs so easily and from so close. And that there were so many of them! The park was not crowded at all and the trail was very well marked. It was definitely worth a visit.
We find petroglyphs very interesting and it is so intriguing that there is so little information of what they actually mean. We have seen some before at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and in Mojave National Preserve in California. Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii also had some.
Some of the best petroglyphs we have ever seen were in the World Heritage Rock Art Centre in Alta, Norway. It is interesting that even though they were in a totally different part of the world, they also seemed to follow the same themes as the ones in the United States. Most of them are about animals, hunting, human leaders and the sun.
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We stayed in Albuquerque for few days and among the Petroglyph National Monument we also toured around Breaking Bad filming locations and enjoyed some New Mexican cuisine. We also hiked at El Malpais National Monument before getting to Albuquerque.
Because we knew we would be visiting Petroglyph National Monument we found the accommodation from close. We stayed in Hampton Inn & Suites Albuquerque which was great even though the surrounding area was a little bit restless.
Originally our plan was to stay at Holiday Inn the Historic Old Town of Albuquerque and next time we will go for that for sure.
We drove to Albuquerque from Arizona along the famous Route 66. We already knew this road since we have previously visited there for Petrofied Forest National Park.
Along the way they have many great stops such as Meteor Crater and Walnut Canyon National Monument. And if you are looking for something different for accommodation then you should check out the fun Wigwam Village.
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