Thursday, December 31, 2009

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site



This morning we (my friend Roger and I) left Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and headed to our next destination: White Sands National Monument. Our plan was to ring in the new year camping under the full moon at White Sands but along the way were a couple areas of interest, most notably the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. The petroglyph site is about halfway between Carrizozo and Alamogordo on the way to White Sands. Since I am Native American and my friend Roger and I are both interested in anything to do with Native American history, we wanted to stop and visit the site.



(Click on each image to view a larger version with more detail)



The petroglyphs are carved into an outcropping of boulders that lies on the Tularosa basin, with a terrific view of the broad valley and the Sierra Blanca mountains to the East, the San Andres mountains to the West. The petroglyphs are thought to be the product of the Jornada Mogollon people between about 1000 and 1400 A.D. It is also a very petroglyph-dense site, with (according to BLM materials), over 21,000 to be found in the area. Roger and I walked around the area and took pictures of several of the more prominent petroglyphs, then it was time to continue on to White Sands.



(Click on each image to view a larger version with more detail)

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