The visitor's center was pretty cool. It was definitely southwest style - check out those strings of chili peppers hanging from the rafters!
There was a display to show the type of cooking the natives use to do.
Once inside, the kiddos got started on their next Junior Ranger badge. These would take us a couple hours, since there was always an information booklet to read, questions to answer, information to find in the visitor's center, and then activities to do while at the actual site. The kids love these, and we think they get a whole lot more out of the park or monument by doing them. This site, however had a first for us - a Senior ranger program for adults (note Mary working on a booklet as well). The questions and activities were harder, but it followed the same format - too cool!!
Anyway, off to the actual petroglyphs. The main group (and the ones we went to) are at Boca Negra Canyon. You can click on the picture to enlarge and read the sign, if you want.
One of the most interesting things we learned about the petroglyphs is that we really don't know what they mean. We have ideas, and there are traditions within the contemporary native tribes, but their original meaning is lost in time. As such, I'll just show some, and you can decide what they say to you...
This is a view up the mesa as we climbed. The trail wound up/down this mesa to take you past a variety of different places where the petroglyphs were carved. Another interesting factoid - all the figures were facing east...
No, I didn't turn the camera - this was was actually this way. Whether it was purposefully sideways, or the rock has moved, is unknown...
Some nice folks we met at the top offered to take our picture. Of course, I took theirs as well. This is the view looking back at the petrogylph site.
And this is the view looking out over Albuquerque. It struck me that, unlike many other modern cities, this one actually blends in with its environment.
After the mesa top, it was back down the trail, and off to another trail nearby for more petroglyphs. Have a look...
This one is pretty cool, in that it has a bird that looks very much like a Macaw - which, of course, doesn't live anywhere near here. Archaeologists believe that they traded for the Macaws, and held them sacred in some way...
While we were sitting and the kids working on their Junior Ranger booklets, we saw this rock squirrel come out and have a mid-morning snack.
When we were all done, it was off to the visitor's center to turn in their booklets for review, and then to be sworn in as Junior Rangers. (Don't you think that nice, young ranger looks like the female doctor from the TV show House?)
And then she swore us in as Senior Rangers - woo-hoo!
