PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT

Monday, September 27 – We made one of our shortest moves today.....across I-40...a total of 3 miles. We are at Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post. We'll be meeting Betty and Jay Crane plus another couple here before moving to the balloon launch area on Wednesday. This is quite a historic park. It was originally known as Hill Top Trading Post, do to its location of the hill South of Albuquerque on the historic Route 66. The road and sites are gravel.

The Hill Top Trading Post is located in the office area.

Club room

45 year old Wurlitzer organ.

The next two trailers are located at the entrance to the park.

Our very spacious site.

Looking both ways on our road.

 

Our friends, Betty and Jay, plus two other couples that will be working the Balloon Fiesta, pulled in this afternoon. We all gathered for a get-acquainted happy hour. After getting to know one another, we headed to the casino for the $7.99 buffet. It was amazing. Tons of different nationality type foods were available. They had a great sweets bar to boot. Marsha and I aren't big buffet people and once again we came home miserable......ate too much!

Tuesday, September 28 – This morning we headed out with Betty & Jay Crane to visit the Petroglyph National Monument. We chose to hike Rinconada Canyon. It is a 2.5 mile round-trip hike following the base of the volcanic escarpment. Geologist estimate the Albuquerque volcanoes last erupted 150,000 years ago. Basaltic lava seeped from a 5-mile long fissure. As the sand eroded from underneath the lava, boulders tumbled down forming the escarpment on which the petroglyphs are found.

Jay and Betty

Marsha and Paul

What are Petroglyphs? They are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. When the "desert varnish" on the surface of the rock was pecked off, the lighter rock underneath was exposed, creating the petroglyph.

Archeologist believe Puebloans made most of the 1200 petroglyphs in Rinconada Canyon four to seven hundred years ago. The images include human-like figures, concentric circles/spirals, animal figures, and geometric designs.

We spent about two hours hiking the circular trail and viewing the many petroglyphs. It was amazing to see so many petroglyphs in one spot.

We also saw many millipedes, beetles, lizards, rabbits and other insects.

Milliped

Collared lizard

There was lots of different plant life along the way.

At one point, another hiker warned us of a rattler just ahead, but we were unable to find it! It was an enjoyable morning hiking among the petroglyphs with friends.

See more of Petroglyph National Monument here.

Tomorrow we will be moving to the Balloon Fiesta parking area. We will be boondocking (no utility hook-ups) for about 12 days. We will be working at the Balloon Fiesta just about everyday. We won’t be updating as often as usual. We hopefully will have some awesome pictures to share with you from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great day. Hope to see you back real soon.