Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

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On my last night in Tucson (Sunday), the nice lady I encountered at the Coronet restaurant bar suggested that I take some time to visit Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. I had mentioned that after visiting White Sands National Park I was staying in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is only about 40 minutes north of Alamogordo, hence her forceful recommendation. She was very enthusiastic about the site.

I finished with White Sands by about 2:30, so I decided to take her up on her thoughtful suggestion and I headed due north on U.S. Routes 70 and 54 to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. The site, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (a unit of the Department of Interior), has more than 20,000 petroglyphs, and is one of the few locations in the Southwest set aside solely because of its rock art. It is also one of the few sites giving visitors such direct access to petroglyphs. The petroglyphs were created by the Jornada Mogollon people and date between 900 and 1400 AD. For those who don't know, a petroglyph (according to Wikipedia) is "an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art."

The site's visitor center was closed on Tuesdays (go figure) so I was left to my own devices and followed a concrete path and then a trail up into the summit where the rocks were littered with petroglyphs. Here are a few of the many petroglyphs I encountered during my hike at the site.



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