August 5, 2025 • 24 mins
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Craig the Natural Medic explores the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discovering ancient rock carvings etched into volcanic basalt across three distinct canyon areas.
• Piedras Marcadas Canyon features hundreds of petroglyphs on a 1.5-mile trail showing animals, humanoid figures, and handprints
• Ancestral Pueblo people created the Rio Grande style petroglyphs between 1000 BC and 1700 AD
• Boca Negra Canyon, considered the "birthplace" of the monument, has the famous Macaw petroglyph showing evidence of ancient trade networks
• Rinconada Canyon offers a 2.2-mile trail with the highest concentration of petroglyphs and displays the area's unique geological history
• The volcanic basalt formed approximately 200,000 years ago when volcanoes erupted and created the West Mesa
• The monument preserves an estimated 23,000 petroglyphs that hold spiritual and cultural significance for modern Pueblo peoples
• Visitors should bring water, wear appropriate clothing, and be mindful that park areas close at 5:00 PM
If you liked this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up and think about subscribing to the channel for more great content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi there, craig the Natural Medic.
I am in Albuquerque, new Mexico, at Petroglyphs National
Monument.
Let's check it out.
This is the visitor's center,probably a good place to start
your journey.
Just a reminder it is an urbanpark, so make sure to secure
your belongings.
Don't put them in plain sight.
Make sure that they are lockedup and secured in your vehicle.
(00:24):
Make sure that they are lockedup and secured in your vehicle.
They haven't had very manybreak-ins here, but they have
had some.
I talked to one of thevolunteers who's giving trail
information.
The volunteer said that in 2002there was some break-ins, but
with that in mind, I think it'soverall a safe place to visit.
So why don't you come alongwith me and let's check it out?
(00:47):
So, first off, this visitorcenter used to be a house of
what they called the measuringwoman.
She was a local anthropologistthat measured body sizes and was
trying to figure outphysiological changes in humans.
I'm going to head up to PiedrasMaderas, which is the north side
of the park, nice viewing area,so let's go check it out.
(01:09):
I'm gonna start off here, atthe Piedras Marcadas Canyon.
It's a one and a half miletrail.
There are no facilities.
There is no water.
You do need to report anyvandalism that you see.
Make sure you take plenty ofwater, wear appropriate clothing
.
There's supposed to be hundredsof petroglyphs on this trail,
(01:30):
so let's go check them out.
It's definitely a beautiful dayout here.
It's in the 60s, upper 50ssomewhere around there.
No wind today.
It was very windy yesterday.
Still high fire danger.
That's where you start, rightthere, the parking lot to the
other side of those bushes.
There you can continue to theleft to get to petroglyph, which
(01:51):
is 1.5 miles, easy to moderate,or you can connect it with the
loop, which makes it three miles.
I'm probably gonna do thattoday.
There are no facilities, somake sure that you bring your
water, make sure that you bringall the things that you need.
You're not far from help if youneed help, but hopefully you
(02:14):
won't need that.
Be prepared and you won't haveto worry about that.
Alright, let's see somepetroglyphs.
There is a sign here.
It's just talking about spiritsof the rocks are alive by the
marks that are placed on them.
So we have a stop one here gotsome basalt which was created
200,000 years ago and thepetroglyphs were created by
(02:38):
clicking on that.
So there are some glyphs uphere on these rocks.
Since we're close to the RioGrande, they call this Rio
Grande style and typical figuresthat show up are animals,
humanoids, etc.
Authenticity is determinedbecause these were chipped out
(03:01):
of this dark basaltic rock and,as you can see here, they are
fading.
See some more faded ones on topof this rock.
These are the ancestors of themodern Puebloan people.
Looks like a humanoid figurethere to the right side here and
then over there some kind of amask, maybe a deity or something
(03:23):
Pretty cool.
There's supposed to be hundredsof glyphs on here.
I won't be able to give you allof them, but there's a good
concentration of them right here.
There's several on this rockhere and there's several on most
of the rock faces up above.
Pause the video for a closerlook.
(03:43):
These ones are very close tothe trail here.
Got a hand print not sure whatthat metal one is and some kind
of animal looks almost like aturtle to me round shell legs,
long tail.
Some more cool ones all up anddown the rocks here Pretty
(04:07):
neat-o.
Not sure what those are.
There's a bird.
The rest of them I'm not reallysure, as you don't really know.
There's some guys up there.
There's no way.
I want to get pictures of allthese guys.
These look like suns with alittle point, maybe they're like
arms or something, and a littlehat or a halo on top.
(04:31):
There's some animal figures onthere.
There's some more over herethat I missed while I go.
Pretty cool, some really coolones on that boulder up there.
It's about halfway up.
Up looks like a bunch ofhandprints, maybe a bow and
arrow.
It's a bunch of handprints.
That's what I can mostly makeout.
(04:52):
The way they date these thingsis.
They could use comparativeimages that were found on
pottery that has been figuredout in the same era.
They think around 1300 is whennew designs were coming around.
You've got more and more glyphsover here, all different kinds.
(05:13):
It's like a person laying downA cylindrical deal, maybe like a
brand or a circle with a stickI don't know what that is.
Graffiti here and there.
I haven't seen too much todayso far, which is good.
Some other things up there, wow, very cool.
(05:37):
Petroglyphs do representrepresent a valuable record of
cultural expression, humanoccupation.
Here in the Rio Grande Valleyyou have many, many different
groups that find these to besacred or special.
Some of them have commonknowledge.
We can tell what some of themare, but some of them we don't
(05:59):
know and we'll probably neverknow.
We have a lot of different onesright here at this stop and
sometimes they call these panelsbecause they're groupings of
images never know.
We have a lot of different onesright here at this stop and
sometimes they call these panelsbecause they're groupings of
images that are together Just anumber of interesting ones.
For sure I've got to hand it tothe native people.
(06:20):
They really know how to puttheir finger on things.
Pretty cool handprint dealshere.
This is pretty much the end ofthe Petroglyph Trail.
Gonna go up around the top ofthe mesa and hike back to the
main parking area On top of theridgeline.
(06:41):
Here there is lots ofencroaching houses.
I don't know if you can seebehind me, but there's houses
right on the boundary of thispark.
But man, what a gorgeous view.
There's the valley below whereI was walking and seeing all the
glyphs.
So that was Piedras MercadosCanyon and, as I said, there's
(07:07):
no water, there's no restroom,so bring your own, be prepared.
To go to the restroom beforeyou get there.
Took about two hours for me todo the entire thing.
That was including the Mesa toploop.
You can just stay at the bottomand loop back whenever you get
to the end of the petroglyphtrail.
If you like this video, makesure to give it a thumbs up.
(07:30):
Think about subscribing to thechannel for more great content.
Working my way south, on theeast side of the monument here
in Boca Negra, canyon whichmeans black mouth is considered
the birthplace of petroglyphNational Monument.
In private citizens it becameIndian Petroglyph State Park,
(07:51):
which later became the focalpoint for today's national
monument.
So National Park Service, cityof Albuquerque and the state are
mandated to protect andpreserve future generations.
I was pleased the other trailwas not dirty.
There was not any trash that Isaw.
So hopefully everybody visitingwill do their part.
Pretty cool little spiral righthere.
(08:12):
Let's go up this trail.
There's two gentlemen that justwent up and followed this trail
.
Let's see where that goes.
Cool astrological symbols onthis guy.
There's some more animals andother things on the other side
we have more here.
What I read was that Boca Negra, which is the Black Mouth, is
(08:33):
very accessible to many people.
Look at this guy.
I'm not sure if that's his weendown there or what that is.
I'm not sure what's going onthere, but it's definitely
bigger than the other guys.
There's the parking lot.
You can see my vehicle downthere, maybe Right below my feet
here.
(08:54):
This was a grinding surface.
The native people to make theseglyphs were using a primitive
hammer and chisel made out ofsandstone, so it was somewhat
resistant but they used it togrind and sharpen tools.
Also to grind seeds, to dryflower petals and the pigments
and to do medicines.
Had to grind these plants intomedicines.
(09:17):
Pretty neat when I'm standingat one mile above sea level here
on the trail, and the east arethe Sandia Mountains.
I'll show you in a second which.
The crest of them is just over10,000 feet, like just under
11,000 feet at 10,678 feet.
Let's take a look at those then.
In front of that we see all thegreen.
(09:38):
Ahead is the Rio Grande Valley,which has human habitation
dating back 3,000 years.
The first inhabitants were theancestral Pueblo people who made
these markings on the rock, thepetroglyphs.
The Spanish colonists came inin the 1500s and started
settling around here, and thenthe American pioneers.
Albuquerque itself is a prettyold city.
(09:59):
300th birthday was in 2006.
You can see it spreading outbefore us.
There's an old town way overthere.
The more mountains that way.
The Benzano's pretty cool.
Something else to think aboutthese petroglyphs on this little
alcove here representative theRio Grande style glyphs.
(10:22):
There's some up here, some moreover here on the other side of
this rock.
Just a reminder they have thesecables here for a reason.
They did provide some niceaccessibility by making a
semi-paved trail with somestairways, handrails and stuff,
but they don't want you to touchthese things, so preserve these
(10:43):
for future generations.
Here's some more.
That's a pretty cool one rightthere on top of that rock.
Interesting, while you're inBocan I did go to the top of
that guy with lots of lifts onthat cliff face that I call the
Mesa top trail, walked over herekind of along the edge and then
there's bathrooms right here.
(11:03):
Use those.
There's some information and awater thing there.
This part of the park is alittle bit different because
it's run by the Open SpaceDepartment of the city of
Albuquerque and this little guyis very special here.
You can pause the video if youwant to read this In summary
we've heard this before.
(11:24):
These are made by the people ofthe ancestors of the modern
Pueblo people, so this is afamous one the macaw.
They removed that desertvarnish on the basalt with
handheld stone tools Becausethey have darkened over time.
They used to be a lot brighter.
(11:45):
They are authentic.
Because of that, even thoughyou're very close, don't touch
these.
They will wear out over time.
It's more touching.
You can touch it too much.
People you can touch it toomuch.
Just keep that in mind andapply as necessary.
Anyway, though this is a macaw,macaw actually were traded
People here in central northcentral New Mexico.
(12:08):
There are pictures of them AtCrow Canyon.
There were some pictures ofmacaws and native groups traded
among themselves and sometimeswould bring macaws up from
Central America.
So they were native to thetropical parts of you know, in
that little area between Northand South America, costa Rica
(12:34):
and places like that, and sothey traded for these guys.
So this is still on the McCallTrail, the McCall Rock.
It's just right here, oractually just up where those
stairwells are.
This is a yucca pod.
Yucca was very important tonative people.
(12:54):
They used it to make food, ofcourse, they used it for brushes
, they used it for for fiber,they used it for all kinds of
things.
So of course they're going togive tribute to it by putting it
on the rock here.
This other part is called thecliff base trail.
There's lots of cool ones here.
It's almost like a sunflower.
If you look at it closely.
There's a little face and aflower petal or flower at the
(13:18):
top and then there's the littlepetals underneath, almost like
it's a, like it's smiling, Idon't know.
Kind of interesting.
Then you have these other guyshere got native figures very
interesting, and up there youhave these other guys here Got
native figures Very interestingand up there you have a snake on
(13:39):
that rock there, someanthropomorphic figures here.
Other things Got some otherfigures on the other side of
this rock.
Why did they choose here?
Nobody really knows, but theythink that Native American
people held volcanic placeswhich these are all volcanic
origin.
Rocks and volcanoes did erupthere.
(14:00):
Those were held as sacredplaces.
And the rocks, if you'll notice, face kind of southeast.
There's a little guy in there.
Might have been because of thesun, might have been because the
snow was clear at that time,not really sure.
They used radiocarbon dating and23,000 petroglyphs it is
(14:27):
thought were created here on themonument.
They were created between 1000BC and AD 1700.
Notice all these bubbles.
I'm not touching anypetroglyphs.
You got all these bubbles andyou have.
In this case you have sand inthere.
Sometimes you have other thingsthat form in there.
They call those vesicles.
(14:48):
When the lava or the magma isbubbling up, it has these little
bubbles from carbon dioxide,gas or water vapor or whatever
is in there.
Some more glyphs here.
This gentleman looks like he hasa fishbone in his mouth.
I don't think he does.
(15:10):
Unfortunately, we have graffitithat shows up from these rock
art sites sometimes.
So tell me one of those people.
You can be fined heavily and goto jail if you damage rock art.
So don't do it.
Save it for future generations.
I hope you enjoyed that brieftrip in Boca Negra, the Black
(15:33):
Mouth.
If you liked it, give it athumbs up and think about
subscribing to the channel.
But if you have any questionsor comments, leave them below.
Hey, now I'm on my third andfinal piece of exploration at
Petroglyph national monument.
This is riconada canyon.
It's a 2.2 mile trip on thisone.
(15:56):
It does take a little bitlonger than the other two.
Maybe should have done it first, but that's okay.
It's not hot.
It is rather sunshiny and clear, but it's not hot and it's not
too bad today.
But you do want to bring plentyof water.
(16:16):
There are vault toilets at theentrance, but it is a moderately
difficult trail to go up.
The reason you hear mebreathing is because I'm going
uphill and anyway hope thatyou'll follow me down the trail
and see what we can find.
This is the third of the majorpetroglyph viewing areas here at
(16:41):
Petroglyph National Monument inAlbuquerque.
Let's check it out.
So one thing to think about asto why these things are here in
the first place is the volcanoes, the geology of what made this
site come to be.
The volcanoes are primarilylocated behind me.
They erupted about 200 000years ago and made this lava
(17:03):
flow, which is now what we callthe west mesa.
Here in albuquerque.
Let's flip around the lens.
Take a look.
We have this big hill or mesathat goes all the way around,
formed of this dark, gray orblack basalt, forms the entire
(17:24):
canyon here, but why didn't itform in the ways you think,
which would be filling up thewhole valley?
The thought about it is thatyou have the thing called
inverted topography.
Inverted topography means therewas some kind of obstruction in
the way, some kind of hill,mountain, etc.
That the lava, when it eruptedfrom the volcanoes, flowed
(17:48):
around.
So it kind of did an oppositeof what you would think.
There is an image right there.
It's very faint, but it's ahumanoid type figure right there
.
Think about how that fits intothe cultural landscape.
Another thing to think about iswhat about this sand here?
This sand is definitely adifferent color.
So where did it come from?
Well, the Rio Puerco, which isa tributary of the Rio Grande,
(18:19):
washed in a huge amount ofsediment over time and it
settled in the valley, here inthe canyon, and then here it is.
That's why it's a differentcolor.
You have religious symbols ofthe Spanish people that settled
here in the 1500s.
They used the mesa here themesa top, the mesa bottom as
grazing land for their sheep.
They brought in sheep fortextile uses and for food.
(18:41):
There's primitive walls.
I don't know if we'll see anyon this trip, but there's some
here.
Then, over here, theseinscriptions are considered
historic graffiti, which thePark Service defines as it has
to be 50 years old, andcontribute to the history of the
site.
If you see, here there's twodifferent names Mr Thorpe and Mr
Bidet.
They were employees of therailroad that came to
(19:02):
Albuquerque in 1919 and gotstuck out here in the canyon.
While they were out herehunting and decided to carve
their names in here and theirdate.
So it took them a full day todo that.
So, if you think about it,anybody that did these
inscriptions had to put theirmind to it, because it wasn't
(19:24):
easy to make these inscriptionson the rocks.
It required determination.
The rocks require determination, skill and persistence.
So if we zoom in over here, wesee a great example of using the
rock structure to make a 3Dimage.
If you look right over there,it's going to be maybe hard to
see.
I did zoom in.
(19:46):
Look at the center of the frame.
There there's a mask set on theedge of the boulder where
there's a crack and you'reseeing the rock.
It looks almost like it has aface right there.
It's pretty crazy.
The native people that madethese petroglyphs were
definitely inventive and usedwhat they had around them to
(20:09):
make their work a little biteasier.
This is the very back of thecanyon, highest concentration of
petroglyphs.
So if you look, you have allkinds of glyphs up here.
It's like a mountain lion orsomething.
On top of this rock over here,several figures with shields and
other things.
It's hard to see in the directsunlight.
(20:30):
I'm not really sure exactlywhat I'm looking at, but no
matter.
Largest concentration ofpetroglyphs.
Of course the sun is shiningright in our face.
So that's all the way in theback of the canyon.
Now we're going to walk out.
Let's see if we see anythingelse.
Some final thoughts to thinkabout as we get to the end of
(20:53):
the trail.
Here is this environment thatwe're in was made possible by
the Rio Grande Rift Valley, andyou can see that, and you can
see that in the mountains aheadof us, the Sandias, straight
ahead, the Manzanos, connectedalso to the south over there.
(21:18):
And what happened was 30million years ago you had
geologic forces that startedstretching this rift valley.
There's only a few of these onearth, and one of them is here
in the middle of New Mexico.
How crazy is that?
You'll see it better as soon asI crest this little rise right
(21:41):
here.
What happened?
Was it allowed?
Over time, as that crust wasthinned out, it allowed
volcanoes to erupt, createdmagma, magma and lava kind of
are.
They're basically the samething.
They came out of the earth andmade what is now the west mesa,
(22:06):
and that was the medium in whichthe native people, and later
Spaniards and Americans, carvedtheir mark on the landscape here
in what is now PetroglyphNational Monument and just to
talk briefly about theenvironment.
(22:27):
And just to talk briefly aboutthe environment, to the south of
us, towards Las Cruces, is thedesert, and to the north of us
we're more in the ColoradoPlateau and if you go up towards
Santa Fe you get back into theRocky Mountains.
We're in kind of a transitionzone.
Here in Albuquerque.
You have a mixture of all thesedifferent environments and if
(22:51):
you look out here there's a widevariety of plants that utilize
this area and a wide variety ofanimals.
I didn't see too many animalstoday.
I saw quite a few lizards andheard some birds.
Everybody else was probablypretty much asleep.
They'll probably come out atnight.
This park is primarily a day-usepark and because of that, since
(23:13):
I get back to my vehicle, I'vegot to vacate the parking lot at
5 o'clock Because they willlock it up in tow vehicles and
or fine you.
So make sure that you are doingthis trail, the Ricanada Canyon
, get back by 5 o'clock so youcan exit the premises.
I hope you've enjoyed our visitto Petroglyph National Monument
(23:33):
Part of the last time I'm goingto be here.
There are some more areas toexplore here, but for today I've
pretty much ran out of time.
Most of the areas here aregoing to close up for the day.
Fitzgerald Center closes at4.30, so it's probably already
closed.
We're getting close to beingclosed.
(23:54):
A lot of the trails and day-useareas close up at a similar
time.
If you have enjoyed this, makesure to give it a thumbs up.
Make sure to think aboutsubscribing to the channel and
if you have any questions,comments, let me know.
If you've been here before,hope to see you out on the trail
Until next time.
Bye.
Hi there, craig the Natural Medic.
I am in Albuquerque, new Mexico, at Petroglyphs National
Monument.
Let's check it out.
This is the visitor's center,probably a good place to start
your journey.
Just a reminder it is an urbanpark, so make sure to secure
your belongings.
Don't put them in plain sight.
Make sure that they are lockedup and secured in your vehicle.
(00:24):
Make sure that they are lockedup and secured in your vehicle.
They haven't had very manybreak-ins here, but they have
had some.
I talked to one of thevolunteers who's giving trail
information.
The volunteer said that in 2002there was some break-ins, but
with that in mind, I think it'soverall a safe place to visit.
So why don't you come alongwith me and let's check it out?
(00:47):
So, first off, this visitorcenter used to be a house of
what they called the measuringwoman.
She was a local anthropologistthat measured body sizes and was
trying to figure outphysiological changes in humans.
I'm going to head up to PiedrasMaderas, which is the north side
of the park, nice viewing area,so let's go check it out.
(01:09):
I'm gonna start off here, atthe Piedras Marcadas Canyon.
It's a one and a half miletrail.
There are no facilities.
There is no water.
You do need to report anyvandalism that you see.
Make sure you take plenty ofwater, wear appropriate clothing
.
There's supposed to be hundredsof petroglyphs on this trail,
(01:30):
so let's go check them out.
It's definitely a beautiful dayout here.
It's in the 60s, upper 50ssomewhere around there.
No wind today.
It was very windy yesterday.
Still high fire danger.
That's where you start, rightthere, the parking lot to the
other side of those bushes.
There you can continue to theleft to get to petroglyph, which
(01:51):
is 1.5 miles, easy to moderate,or you can connect it with the
loop, which makes it three miles.
I'm probably gonna do thattoday.
There are no facilities, somake sure that you bring your
water, make sure that you bringall the things that you need.
You're not far from help if youneed help, but hopefully you
(02:14):
won't need that.
Be prepared and you won't haveto worry about that.
Alright, let's see somepetroglyphs.
There is a sign here.
It's just talking about spiritsof the rocks are alive by the
marks that are placed on them.
So we have a stop one here gotsome basalt which was created
200,000 years ago and thepetroglyphs were created by
(02:38):
clicking on that.
So there are some glyphs uphere on these rocks.
Since we're close to the RioGrande, they call this Rio
Grande style and typical figuresthat show up are animals,
humanoids, etc.
Authenticity is determinedbecause these were chipped out
(03:01):
of this dark basaltic rock and,as you can see here, they are
fading.
See some more faded ones on topof this rock.
These are the ancestors of themodern Puebloan people.
Looks like a humanoid figurethere to the right side here and
then over there some kind of amask, maybe a deity or something
(03:23):
Pretty cool.
There's supposed to be hundredsof glyphs on here.
I won't be able to give you allof them, but there's a good
concentration of them right here.
There's several on this rockhere and there's several on most
of the rock faces up above.
Pause the video for a closerlook.
(03:43):
These ones are very close tothe trail here.
Got a hand print not sure whatthat metal one is and some kind
of animal looks almost like aturtle to me round shell legs,
long tail.
Some more cool ones all up anddown the rocks here Pretty
(04:07):
neat-o.
Not sure what those are.
There's a bird.
The rest of them I'm not reallysure, as you don't really know.
There's some guys up there.
There's no way.
I want to get pictures of allthese guys.
These look like suns with alittle point, maybe they're like
arms or something, and a littlehat or a halo on top.
(04:31):
There's some animal figures onthere.
There's some more over herethat I missed while I go.
Pretty cool, some really coolones on that boulder up there.
It's about halfway up.
Up looks like a bunch ofhandprints, maybe a bow and
arrow.
It's a bunch of handprints.
That's what I can mostly makeout.
(04:52):
The way they date these thingsis.
They could use comparativeimages that were found on
pottery that has been figuredout in the same era.
They think around 1300 is whennew designs were coming around.
You've got more and more glyphsover here, all different kinds.
(05:13):
It's like a person laying downA cylindrical deal, maybe like a
brand or a circle with a stickI don't know what that is.
Graffiti here and there.
I haven't seen too much todayso far, which is good.
Some other things up there, wow, very cool.
(05:37):
Petroglyphs do representrepresent a valuable record of
cultural expression, humanoccupation.
Here in the Rio Grande Valleyyou have many, many different
groups that find these to besacred or special.
Some of them have commonknowledge.
We can tell what some of themare, but some of them we don't
(05:59):
know and we'll probably neverknow.
We have a lot of different onesright here at this stop and
sometimes they call these panelsbecause they're groupings of
images never know.
We have a lot of different onesright here at this stop and
sometimes they call these panelsbecause they're groupings of
images that are together Just anumber of interesting ones.
For sure I've got to hand it tothe native people.
(06:20):
They really know how to puttheir finger on things.
Pretty cool handprint dealshere.
This is pretty much the end ofthe Petroglyph Trail.
Gonna go up around the top ofthe mesa and hike back to the
main parking area On top of theridgeline.
(06:41):
Here there is lots ofencroaching houses.
I don't know if you can seebehind me, but there's houses
right on the boundary of thispark.
But man, what a gorgeous view.
There's the valley below whereI was walking and seeing all the
glyphs.
So that was Piedras MercadosCanyon and, as I said, there's
(07:07):
no water, there's no restroom,so bring your own, be prepared.
To go to the restroom beforeyou get there.
Took about two hours for me todo the entire thing.
That was including the Mesa toploop.
You can just stay at the bottomand loop back whenever you get
to the end of the petroglyphtrail.
If you like this video, makesure to give it a thumbs up.
(07:30):
Think about subscribing to thechannel for more great content.
Working my way south, on theeast side of the monument here
in Boca Negra, canyon whichmeans black mouth is considered
the birthplace of petroglyphNational Monument.
In private citizens it becameIndian Petroglyph State Park,
(07:51):
which later became the focalpoint for today's national
monument.
So National Park Service, cityof Albuquerque and the state are
mandated to protect andpreserve future generations.
I was pleased the other trailwas not dirty.
There was not any trash that Isaw.
So hopefully everybody visitingwill do their part.
Pretty cool little spiral righthere.
(08:12):
Let's go up this trail.
There's two gentlemen that justwent up and followed this trail
.
Let's see where that goes.
Cool astrological symbols onthis guy.
There's some more animals andother things on the other side
we have more here.
What I read was that Boca Negra, which is the Black Mouth, is
(08:33):
very accessible to many people.
Look at this guy.
I'm not sure if that's his weendown there or what that is.
I'm not sure what's going onthere, but it's definitely
bigger than the other guys.
There's the parking lot.
You can see my vehicle downthere, maybe Right below my feet
here.
(08:54):
This was a grinding surface.
The native people to make theseglyphs were using a primitive
hammer and chisel made out ofsandstone, so it was somewhat
resistant but they used it togrind and sharpen tools.
Also to grind seeds, to dryflower petals and the pigments
and to do medicines.
Had to grind these plants intomedicines.
(09:17):
Pretty neat when I'm standingat one mile above sea level here
on the trail, and the east arethe Sandia Mountains.
I'll show you in a second which.
The crest of them is just over10,000 feet, like just under
11,000 feet at 10,678 feet.
Let's take a look at those then.
In front of that we see all thegreen.
(09:38):
Ahead is the Rio Grande Valley,which has human habitation
dating back 3,000 years.
The first inhabitants were theancestral Pueblo people who made
these markings on the rock, thepetroglyphs.
The Spanish colonists came inin the 1500s and started
settling around here, and thenthe American pioneers.
Albuquerque itself is a prettyold city.
(09:59):
300th birthday was in 2006.
You can see it spreading outbefore us.
There's an old town way overthere.
The more mountains that way.
The Benzano's pretty cool.
Something else to think aboutthese petroglyphs on this little
alcove here representative theRio Grande style glyphs.
(10:22):
There's some up here, some moreover here on the other side of
this rock.
Just a reminder they have thesecables here for a reason.
They did provide some niceaccessibility by making a
semi-paved trail with somestairways, handrails and stuff,
but they don't want you to touchthese things, so preserve these
(10:43):
for future generations.
Here's some more.
That's a pretty cool one rightthere on top of that rock.
Interesting, while you're inBocan I did go to the top of
that guy with lots of lifts onthat cliff face that I call the
Mesa top trail, walked over herekind of along the edge and then
there's bathrooms right here.
(11:03):
Use those.
There's some information and awater thing there.
This part of the park is alittle bit different because
it's run by the Open SpaceDepartment of the city of
Albuquerque and this little guyis very special here.
You can pause the video if youwant to read this In summary
we've heard this before.
(11:24):
These are made by the people ofthe ancestors of the modern
Pueblo people, so this is afamous one the macaw.
They removed that desertvarnish on the basalt with
handheld stone tools Becausethey have darkened over time.
They used to be a lot brighter.
(11:45):
They are authentic.
Because of that, even thoughyou're very close, don't touch
these.
They will wear out over time.
It's more touching.
You can touch it too much.
People you can touch it toomuch.
Just keep that in mind andapply as necessary.
Anyway, though this is a macaw,macaw actually were traded
People here in central northcentral New Mexico.
(12:08):
There are pictures of them AtCrow Canyon.
There were some pictures ofmacaws and native groups traded
among themselves and sometimeswould bring macaws up from
Central America.
So they were native to thetropical parts of you know, in
that little area between Northand South America, costa Rica
(12:34):
and places like that, and sothey traded for these guys.
So this is still on the McCallTrail, the McCall Rock.
It's just right here, oractually just up where those
stairwells are.
This is a yucca pod.
Yucca was very important tonative people.
(12:54):
They used it to make food, ofcourse, they used it for brushes
, they used it for for fiber,they used it for all kinds of
things.
So of course they're going togive tribute to it by putting it
on the rock here.
This other part is called thecliff base trail.
There's lots of cool ones here.
It's almost like a sunflower.
If you look at it closely.
There's a little face and aflower petal or flower at the
(13:18):
top and then there's the littlepetals underneath, almost like
it's a, like it's smiling, Idon't know.
Kind of interesting.
Then you have these other guyshere got native figures very
interesting, and up there youhave these other guys here Got
native figures Very interestingand up there you have a snake on
(13:39):
that rock there, someanthropomorphic figures here.
Other things Got some otherfigures on the other side of
this rock.
Why did they choose here?
Nobody really knows, but theythink that Native American
people held volcanic placeswhich these are all volcanic
origin.
Rocks and volcanoes did erupthere.
(14:00):
Those were held as sacredplaces.
And the rocks, if you'll notice, face kind of southeast.
There's a little guy in there.
Might have been because of thesun, might have been because the
snow was clear at that time,not really sure.
They used radiocarbon dating and23,000 petroglyphs it is
(14:27):
thought were created here on themonument.
They were created between 1000BC and AD 1700.
Notice all these bubbles.
I'm not touching anypetroglyphs.
You got all these bubbles andyou have.
In this case you have sand inthere.
Sometimes you have other thingsthat form in there.
They call those vesicles.
(14:48):
When the lava or the magma isbubbling up, it has these little
bubbles from carbon dioxide,gas or water vapor or whatever
is in there.
Some more glyphs here.
This gentleman looks like he hasa fishbone in his mouth.
I don't think he does.
(15:10):
Unfortunately, we have graffitithat shows up from these rock
art sites sometimes.
So tell me one of those people.
You can be fined heavily and goto jail if you damage rock art.
So don't do it.
Save it for future generations.
I hope you enjoyed that brieftrip in Boca Negra, the Black
(15:33):
Mouth.
If you liked it, give it athumbs up and think about
subscribing to the channel.
But if you have any questionsor comments, leave them below.
Hey, now I'm on my third andfinal piece of exploration at
Petroglyph national monument.
This is riconada canyon.
It's a 2.2 mile trip on thisone.
(15:56):
It does take a little bitlonger than the other two.
Maybe should have done it first, but that's okay.
It's not hot.
It is rather sunshiny and clear, but it's not hot and it's not
too bad today.
But you do want to bring plentyof water.
(16:16):
There are vault toilets at theentrance, but it is a moderately
difficult trail to go up.
The reason you hear mebreathing is because I'm going
uphill and anyway hope thatyou'll follow me down the trail
and see what we can find.
This is the third of the majorpetroglyph viewing areas here at
(16:41):
Petroglyph National Monument inAlbuquerque.
Let's check it out.
So one thing to think about asto why these things are here in
the first place is the volcanoes, the geology of what made this
site come to be.
The volcanoes are primarilylocated behind me.
They erupted about 200 000years ago and made this lava
(17:03):
flow, which is now what we callthe west mesa.
Here in albuquerque.
Let's flip around the lens.
Take a look.
We have this big hill or mesathat goes all the way around,
formed of this dark, gray orblack basalt, forms the entire
(17:24):
canyon here, but why didn't itform in the ways you think,
which would be filling up thewhole valley?
The thought about it is thatyou have the thing called
inverted topography.
Inverted topography means therewas some kind of obstruction in
the way, some kind of hill,mountain, etc.
That the lava, when it eruptedfrom the volcanoes, flowed
(17:48):
around.
So it kind of did an oppositeof what you would think.
There is an image right there.
It's very faint, but it's ahumanoid type figure right there
.
Think about how that fits intothe cultural landscape.
Another thing to think about iswhat about this sand here?
This sand is definitely adifferent color.
So where did it come from?
Well, the Rio Puerco, which isa tributary of the Rio Grande,
(18:19):
washed in a huge amount ofsediment over time and it
settled in the valley, here inthe canyon, and then here it is.
That's why it's a differentcolor.
You have religious symbols ofthe Spanish people that settled
here in the 1500s.
They used the mesa here themesa top, the mesa bottom as
grazing land for their sheep.
They brought in sheep fortextile uses and for food.
(18:41):
There's primitive walls.
I don't know if we'll see anyon this trip, but there's some
here.
Then, over here, theseinscriptions are considered
historic graffiti, which thePark Service defines as it has
to be 50 years old, andcontribute to the history of the
site.
If you see, here there's twodifferent names Mr Thorpe and Mr
Bidet.
They were employees of therailroad that came to
(19:02):
Albuquerque in 1919 and gotstuck out here in the canyon.
While they were out herehunting and decided to carve
their names in here and theirdate.
So it took them a full day todo that.
So, if you think about it,anybody that did these
inscriptions had to put theirmind to it, because it wasn't
(19:24):
easy to make these inscriptionson the rocks.
It required determination.
The rocks require determination, skill and persistence.
So if we zoom in over here, wesee a great example of using the
rock structure to make a 3Dimage.
If you look right over there,it's going to be maybe hard to
see.
I did zoom in.
(19:46):
Look at the center of the frame.
There there's a mask set on theedge of the boulder where
there's a crack and you'reseeing the rock.
It looks almost like it has aface right there.
It's pretty crazy.
The native people that madethese petroglyphs were
definitely inventive and usedwhat they had around them to
(20:09):
make their work a little biteasier.
This is the very back of thecanyon, highest concentration of
petroglyphs.
So if you look, you have allkinds of glyphs up here.
It's like a mountain lion orsomething.
On top of this rock over here,several figures with shields and
other things.
It's hard to see in the directsunlight.
(20:30):
I'm not really sure exactlywhat I'm looking at, but no
matter.
Largest concentration ofpetroglyphs.
Of course the sun is shiningright in our face.
So that's all the way in theback of the canyon.
Now we're going to walk out.
Let's see if we see anythingelse.
Some final thoughts to thinkabout as we get to the end of
(20:53):
the trail.
Here is this environment thatwe're in was made possible by
the Rio Grande Rift Valley, andyou can see that, and you can
see that in the mountains aheadof us, the Sandias, straight
ahead, the Manzanos, connectedalso to the south over there.
(21:18):
And what happened was 30million years ago you had
geologic forces that startedstretching this rift valley.
There's only a few of these onearth, and one of them is here
in the middle of New Mexico.
How crazy is that?
You'll see it better as soon asI crest this little rise right
(21:41):
here.
What happened?
Was it allowed?
Over time, as that crust wasthinned out, it allowed
volcanoes to erupt, createdmagma, magma and lava kind of
are.
They're basically the samething.
They came out of the earth andmade what is now the west mesa,
(22:06):
and that was the medium in whichthe native people, and later
Spaniards and Americans, carvedtheir mark on the landscape here
in what is now PetroglyphNational Monument and just to
talk briefly about theenvironment.
(22:27):
And just to talk briefly aboutthe environment, to the south of
us, towards Las Cruces, is thedesert, and to the north of us
we're more in the ColoradoPlateau and if you go up towards
Santa Fe you get back into theRocky Mountains.
We're in kind of a transitionzone.
Here in Albuquerque.
You have a mixture of all thesedifferent environments and if
(22:51):
you look out here there's a widevariety of plants that utilize
this area and a wide variety ofanimals.
I didn't see too many animalstoday.
I saw quite a few lizards andheard some birds.
Everybody else was probablypretty much asleep.
They'll probably come out atnight.
This park is primarily a day-usepark and because of that, since
(23:13):
I get back to my vehicle, I'vegot to vacate the parking lot at
5 o'clock Because they willlock it up in tow vehicles and
or fine you.
So make sure that you are doingthis trail, the Ricanada Canyon
, get back by 5 o'clock so youcan exit the premises.
I hope you've enjoyed our visitto Petroglyph National Monument
(23:33):
Part of the last time I'm goingto be here.
There are some more areas toexplore here, but for today I've
pretty much ran out of time.
Most of the areas here aregoing to close up for the day.
Fitzgerald Center closes at4.30, so it's probably already
closed.
We're getting close to beingclosed.
(23:54):
A lot of the trails and day-useareas close up at a similar
time.
If you have enjoyed this, makesure to give it a thumbs up.
Make sure to think aboutsubscribing to the channel and
if you have any questions,comments, let me know.
If you've been here before,hope to see you out on the trail
Until next time.
Bye.
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