Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The single biggest surprise during our trip to White Sands and Alamogordo, NM was the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. We posted a couple of pictures from Three Rivers in our last post, but we wanted to share more. 

It is believed that these petroglyphs were made between about 900 and 1400 AD by a people that were probably assimilated into, but have no known relationship to, surviving Native American cultures. The glyphs were made by using rocks to chip the black surface off of larger rocks. By the time that the Spanish arrived here, the site had been abandoned for at least 100 years and their culture no longer existed. There are believed to be about 21,000 individual glyphs here, on about 50 acres. There are two marked trails: One into the fields of rocks, and another to the ruins of the tiny village where these people lived. The trails were easy, but when the heat of the day arrived (even in March) we were reminded that in the desert one needs to be very careful about exposure. 

There are a few picnic tables and campsites and a restroom at the parking lot, but this is a primitive area in the middle of nowhere and with no staff on site. One just wanders about and finds what one finds. What they might mean is open for discussion. 

2017 Spring Break

For our Spring Break trip, we drove out to Balmorhea State Park, swam, spent the night, and then drove on to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park in Alamogordo, NM. Using that as our base, we made day trips into Las Cruces, Cloudcroft, Sunspot, and Carrizozo, NM. Those trips included drives along some beautiful scenic drives and several other parks and campgrounds – most notably White Sands National Monument and the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. It has been a full and fun week. And, as of this writing, we still have two days left.

Balmorhea is a spring-fed pool oasis in west Texas near the Davis Mountains. We stop there often and have posted some photos from there before, but here is one more.

Oliver Lee was at the very edge of the Tularosa Basin and the cliffs of the Sacramento Mountains just southeast of Alamogordo – probably about 600 feet higher than the basin floor. This is still the Chihuahuan Desert, so it looks and feels much like Big Bend National Park. But one difference is that the basin floor is about 2000 higher. Another is that the mountains are about 3000 to 6000 feet higher.

These pictures are from the drive to Las Cruces and the White Sands National Monument.

And these are from the visit to the Sacramento Mountains including Cloudcroft and several stops along the road to Sunspot.

And these are from the Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site and Carrizozo, NM. We will probably post more pictures from the Petroglyphs after we are back home. Various sources say there are between 20,000 and 21,000 glyphs. We only saw dozens, and they were still amazing.

It has been a great trip so far – more posts soon.