Albuquerque Visit

Albuquerque is an interesting and beautiful city, located in the middle of New Mexico.  We are spending a week here.  We have visited the area numerous times over the years we have been RVing but we still found a lot to do, places to revisit.

One day we walked through the bosque (trees) along the Rio Grande River.  We saw a lone cormorant sitting on a branch in the river.

I can't remember what this line of metal beams along the river is called but I think it has something to do with flooding.

There are huge cottonwood trees along the bank.

We saw people riding horses on the path.

Another day we walked out to the Petroglyph National Monument.  

There are something like 23,000 ancient petroglyphs there, as well others added by the Mexican sheep herders who were in the area before New Mexico became part of the U.S.  There are also examples of modern graffiti.  (I didn't take pictures of those 20th century additions.)

One day we drove into Old Town Albuquerque to see the shops in the oldest buildings constructed here.  I love this painting.  So colorful!

Many of the doors in the old buildings are attractive and brightly painted.

This door is a sign of the current economy and virus shutdown.  Even when we found shops open, we were the only customers in the store.  How sad for the owners.

The windows in some of the old adobe walls are interesting.

I will end this blog post with this quiet neighborhood in central Albuquerque.  Unfortunately, our country is not as serene as this scene.

Hiking By the Petroglyphs

Tuesday, we visited Petroglyph National Monument, which is surround by the city of Albuquerque. We had been there before, but it was an enjoyable place to get in our daily 5-mile walk. Archeologists estimate that most of the images were made 400 to 700 years ago, though some images may be 2,000 to 3,000 years old. Beginning in the 1600s, Hispanic heirs of the Atrisco Land Grand carved crosses and livestock brands into the rocks.

The path follows a lava escarpment. There are 3 old volcanoes to the west of the monument.

These are some of the images archeologists believe were inscribed by ancestors of today's Native peoples.











At least two of the Spanish sheepherders left their names and the date, 1919, on the rocks.

These crosses were also inscribed by Spanish settlers.

Of course, there is always some modern graffiti, like this one from 1989.

We also saw a few wild flowers, including these two.

Etched in Stone

One of the attractions we have visited here in Albuquerque is Petroglyph National Monument. The 17-mile-long West Mesa, a volcanic lava flow from 150,000 years ago, contains over 20,000 images pecked in stone.



Archaeologists estimate that most of the images were made 400 to 700 years ago by the ancestors of today's Native people. Some may be 2,000 to 3,000 years old. Others were made during the 1600s by the heirs of the Atrisco Land Grant. Other explorers and ranchers left their names and dates in the 1800s and 1900s. We hiked the 2.5 mile round-trip trail through Rinconada Canyon.

This is one of the more recent stone images.



My guess is, these are some of the oldest stone pictures.







The Monument brochure indicates that chipped images like these were probably done in the 1600s or later.







This looks like a drawing of a space alien--but I don't know how old it is.



We couldn't figure out these petroglyphs, either.







Is this Sponge Bob Square Pants?