Finishing Off April with Petroglyphs and Santa Fe Skies

April 27-30, 2025                                                                        Most Recent Posts:
From: Enchanted Trails, Albuquerque, NM                Gathering of All Nations
To:  Santa Fe Skies, Santa Fe, NM                       Pushing Along to Albuquerque

After the fantastic Pow Wow,  I had two more days of my week long stay in Albuquerque at Enchanted Trails RV Park before moving on to a two week stay in Santa Fe.  I had arrived on the Tuesday before the Pow Wow and used Wednesday to recuperate from the drive through Texas and get organized with my tickets and info on the Pow Wow.  Then Thursday-Saturday was the Pow Wow and I needed Sunday to rest up from those very long very full days.

But on Monday I went at Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque.  There isn’t really a visitor’s center despite how large the building looks.  There is a small gift shop and a good movie shown outdoors where the bright New Mexico sun makes it hard to see.  I’m sure this is a result of Covid but come on, that was 5 years ago.

The signage outside the visitor center explained that the Monument’s 7236 acres stretches 17 miles along New Mexico’s West Masa, a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city’s western horizon.   The basalt flow originated from fissures marked by five volcanic spatter cones located within the monument.  They and the escarpment are considered sacred to 29 indigenous tribes.  The monument protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, featuring designs and symbols carved out onto basalt boulders by Indigenous Americans and Spanish settlers 400-700 years ago.  Surveys confirm the presence of more than 24,000 petroglyphs along the volcanic escarpment of Albuquerque's West Mesa.

There are no petroglyphs in the Visitor Center Area.  You must drive to the  3 trails to see the Petroglyphs and they are all at different locations on the property.  I chose Piedras Marcadas Canyon as that was the longest trail with the most petroglyphs.  It has 400.  The other two have 300 and 100.

In the map below, the Visitor Center is marked with the gold star,  the trail I took is at the top with the red star and the other two trails are marked with blue stars.  I only had time for one trail sadly so now I will have to return to Albuquerque to do the other two. 

As you can see from the map below the trail I hiked, it is TOTALLY surrounded by housing developments.   If truth were known, I wonder how many petroglyphs were lost to this.   You have to drive to through the development to get to the trail head which is cursorily fenced off from backyards on both sides.

I saw no one official out here and the site is totally surrounded by housing developments as you can see from the map.  So I am concerned about who is controlling vandalism

The boardwalk between the fences turned into a sandy dirt trail and followed along the curve of the volcanic escarpment shaded dark gray in the map above. 

Piedras (rocks)  Marcadas (marked) was named by the Spanish when they settled Western Albuquerque in the 1600’s.   Most of the petroglyphs were made by the ancient Puebloan people 400-700 years ago using stone tools to peck and chip away at the basalt boulder’s dark desert varnish exposing the lighter true color of the basalt beneath.   Some, crosses, cattle and sheep brands, were made later by the spanish.  It also seemed to me that there was  recent graffiti and I hope the sites are since being better protected.  Though I saw no evidence of this and no prevention of evening entry.  .

That’s the black escarpment in the distance.  If you click on any of the pictures it will enlarge them.

The trail runs along the base of the escarpment and does not go up into it.  At some points it runs closer than others.

See the trail lower right.

But with a good zoom or binoculars you can see a lot of petroglyphs and some actually are very near the trail.

The question is which are ancient petroglyphs and which are not.

Here’s an example of the setting.

Closer with the entire rock.

Zoomed in on the petroglyphs.   Are they all ancient?

This next group was all together.   The first one below is on the far right side of the picture beneath it.

This one draped over the edge of the rock can also be seen in the photo below it.

All on the same rock.  Wish I had a distant picture of it.

The angles of the rocks and the plants growing among them were also wonderful.

Whenever I looked up, I wondered how many petroglyphs were way…back…there.

But I did see some with my zoom which were very obvious.  Like this one zoomed  in on the setting near the top of the escarpment

And more zoomed.

That boulder in the forefront looks like the perfect surface for a petroglyph.  It’s much bigger than it looks here.

The petroglyph above is on the flat face of the rock to the left of center in the picture blow..   The lower one to the right seemed to me to possibly be  at least partially graffiti.  But only an expert would know.  It is below this.

This is seriously a minor portion of the pictures I took on this fantastic walk. As you can see from my standing behind it, these lava rocks are large.   I had a grand time and highly recommend it as the number one thing to do in Albuquerque right after the Gathering of All Nations (link at the top).

The next day I moved up to Santa Fe.  I stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park where I paid $435 a week  ($62/night) to stay two weeks in a FHU pull through site.  No discounts here.  No monthly rates.  Just per night and 6 for 7 if you stay a week.  

That is the most I have ever paid to stay anywhere in 14 years on the road.   There were other parks which Jodee and I checked out but none were significantly less expensive and not nearly as nice or well located.  I would be hesitant to boondock here because of the varying weather patterns and getting stuck in rain drenched ground or frying in the heat without AC.

Views are a big part of the ambiance here.

About Jodee.  Those who read my blog consistently will have seen her comments on every post.  We have met each other on the road a couple of times and when she found out I was coming to Santa Fe she booked 2 weeks in her new smaller RV named PJ to come on its maiden voyage from Arizona and do Santa Fe with me.  How nice is that?  She knows Santa Fe so this is a double boon for me.  I can never thank her enough.  If only she didn’t live so far away and we could travel together more often.  PERFECT!

Of course Tessa came too and the sun was not cooperating when she picked a spot she knows for dinner the night we arrive3d.

And the light in the window above the table was not cooperating when the waiter took our picture.  But we really are as happy as we look.

And then,  it sleeted and hailed and frozen stuff was everywhere.  No stepping out on these icy steps.   It hailed at the END of April.  The first of many new experiences for me

Tomorrow we check out the high and low roads to Taos.