In A Nutshell

Frequently Asked Questions

What are petroglyphs?
Petroglyphs are images that were etched or pecked into stone, usually boulders or large rock faces.

Who made the petroglyphs?
Most petroglyphs were made by American Indians who either lived nearby or who were passing through the area. Most of the petroglyphs at this monument were made by the Pueblo, Apache, and Navajo people. Later, early Spanish explorers and settlers also made petroglyphs.

When were the petroglyphs etched?
Many of the American Indian petroglyph images were etched 300 to 700 years ago. The Spanish petroglyph images were etched 200 to 300 years ago.

How were petroglyphs made?
Most of the petroglyphs were made by pecking. An early method of pecking may have been accomplished by striking the basalt boulder directly with a hammerstone removing the dark, desert varnish on the boulder's surface. Later, a more controlled execution was developed by using two stones, in much the way a chisel is used, to peck boulders. This "hammer and chisel" method gave petroglyph makers the ability to peck images with detail.

Operating Hours & Seasons

Las Imágenes Visitor Center

Open All Year
8:00 a.m.
to
5:00 p.m.

We suggest all visitors stop at the visitor center to receive maps and current information.

Closed on: New Years, Thanksgiving, and Christmas days. The visitor center typically closes at 2:00pm on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

Piedres Marcadas Canyon

Day Use Area

Owned and Managed by the City of Albuquerque, Open Space Division

Open daily 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Located at the Northern end of the Monument.

Limited parking facilites

Directions

Petroglyph National Monument is located on the North West side of Albuquerque, New Mexico. To get to the visitor center you should take I40 east or west depending on the direction you are traveling. Leave the interstate at Exit 154 traveling north on Unser Blvd. Approximatly 3.5 miles north you will find the visitor center at the junciton of Unser and Western Trail. Make a left hand turn at the light. Travel up the road to the parking lot for the visitor center.

Las Imágenes Visitor Center

The Visitor Center is the best place to start your visit to Petroglyph National Monument. Staff members are available to help orient you for your visit to the Monument and to any special programs that might be offered. You may pick up free copies of the park map and park newspaper. This building also houses some interpretive exhibits and the park bookstore.

History of the Visitor Center

Petroglyph National Monument's Visitor Center was once the home of an extraordinary lady.

Dr. Sophie Aberle, known as "Measuring Lady" by the Native Americans she worked with, was the first practicing applied anthropologist in the United States. Her research focused mainly on women's lives at the pueblos, including pregnancy, child birth, child care, diet and healing. Because of her position as Superintendent of the United Pueblo's Agency, she was able to implement practices which led to better conditions in the pueblos.

Sometime around 1954 - 1956, Dr. Aberle and her husband, attorney William Brophy, purchased an adobe-style home on what is now known as Albuquerque's West Mesa. The home was first built by Col. Alexander Stewart, in about 1948, as a homestead property. The original house, most probably, consisted of today's visitor area and conference room.

Between their purchase and 1957, Aberle and Brophy significantly remodeled the original house to accommodate their professional work-related interests. The garage below the kitchen was converted into Dr. Aberle's office, and by 1977 the latillas and shade structure were added on the east and south sides of the house.

In 1990, Dr. Aberle agreed to sell her West Mesa home to the Department of the Interior as part of the establishment of Petroglyph National Monument. On July 11, 1996, the staff of Petroglyph National Monument celebrated Dr. Aberle's 100th birthday by inviting her back to her home. Dr. Aberle was genuinely pleased and thought it appropriate that her home, which had hosted so many tribal and federal representatives, would now be included as part of a National Monument dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of petroglyphs.

Today, the visitor center is the first stop for visitors from around the country and around the world. Park rangers and volunteers, who staff the visitor information desk, can provide maps and directions to areas where you can view many of our estimated 25,000 petroglyph images, as well as provide an orientation to our park resources. The building also houses the Western National Parks Association booktore where a selection of over 250 items are available for purchase. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, demonstrations by local native artisans take place on the visitor center patio each weekend.

Boca Negra Canyon

Introduction

Petroglyph National Monument was set aside in 1990 to protect and preserve one of the largest petroglyph concentrations in North America and is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division. It features more than 25,000 highly fragile petroglyph images pecked into dark boulders along the volcanic cliffs of the West Mesa escarpment. Petroglyphs are cultural images pecked into rock surfaces that can still be viewed in their original context. They possess deep spiritual significance for today's Pueblo Indians and other native peoples. The most heavily visited and easily accessible petroglyphs in the national monument are found here at Boca Negra Canyon. To protect these petroglyph resources and maximize enjoyment during your visit to Boca Negra, please remember:

• Do not touch petroglyphs—body oils can mar them.
• Vandalism is a serious federal crime.
• Stay on trails to prevent erosion.
• Refrain from removing rocks, plants, or resources of any kind.
• Pets are not allowed.
• Respect local cultural groups as you enjoy your visit.

Geological History

The West Mesa escarpment is a 17-mile long cliff of dark basalt boulders created by six volcanic eruptions occurring about 130,000 years ago. When the volcanoes erupted, liquid lava—ranging between 5 and 50 feet thick—flowed down old arroyo channels, forming peninsulas, and then flowed around hills that have since eroded away to form canyons. This unusual geological landscape is called reverse topography. Later flows of thicker lava formed the now extinct volcanic cones to the west that can be seen from the mesa top.

During the millennia that have followed the lava flows, softer soils under the basalt caprock have eroded so that boulders have broken away and tumbled down to create the escarpment edge. Water, sun, heat, cold, and microbial action have oxidized minerals in the basalt, producing a thin patina of dark desert varnish. When people have pecked or chipped into this dark surface to create petroglyphs, they have exposed the lighter-colored rock beneath. Many older petroglyphs have begun to darken over the centuries.

The Natural Setting

The volcanic escarpment contains sandy soils and a richer habitat than the surrounding desert landscape. A wider variety and greater number of plants, insects, birds, and reptiles are found here—which in turn have attracted people to the area from earliest times.

Plants commonly seen here are four-wing saltbush, sand sage, rabbitbrush, snakeweed, indigo bush, wildflowers, Indian ricegrass, and other dune-loving flowers and grasses. Also present are hawks, owls, turkey vultures, roadrunners, flycatchers, and a wide variety of migratory birds, along with rabbits, snakes, lizards, and millipedes. Checklists of flora and fauna species are available at the visitor center.

The Petroglyphs

No one can say for sure what many petroglyphs portray. Native peoples may hold complex and widely varying interpretations of many images, depending upon context. Sometimes images are identified on the basis of contemporary cultural interpretations. It is not always appropriate to even reveal the meanings of images.

Archeologists believe that many petroglyphs in the Rio Grande valley—including those in the Canyon Trail area at Boca Negra—date back at least 3000 years. Relative ages can be estimated on the basis of the darkness of the image, its style or content, and comparisons with prehistoric pottery designs or wall paintings.

Perhaps 90% of the petroglyphs in the monument were created using the Rio Grande style, which developed about A.D. 1300, and continued until the end of the 1600s. During this period, the local population increased rapidly, and adobe pueblo villages were constructed along the river and in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. Images of the Rio Grande style include human figures such as flute players or dancers; masks and masked figures; human hands and feet; animals including mountain lions, birds, serpents, reptiles, insects, and animal tracks; spirals, four-pointed stars, and geometric designs.

The People Who Created the Images

People have lived in the Rio Grande valley for over 10,000 years. First came nomadic hunting and gathering tribes, followed around A.D. 500 by peoples who constructed the first agricultural villages. Early dwellings were small underground structures called pithouses, but by A.D. 1000, people were constructing above ground buildings with multiple rooms called pueblos.

A severe drought struck the Southwest between A.D. 1275 and 1300, causing the people to gather in areas that offered permanent water sources and good farmland, such as the Rio Grande valley. They built numerous adobe pueblos—some of them two or three stories tall—on both sides of the river, and raised crops and domesticated animals such as turkeys and dogs. They also developed new types of pottery on which glaze paints were applied to red or tan backgrounds. These early Pueblo peoples were the direct ancestors of Pueblo Indian peoples who still live along the Rio Grande, and in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona.

The Historical Context

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led the first European expedition to contact Pueblo villages in the Southwest, and spent the winters of 1540-1542 along the west bank of the Rio Grande. Soon, conflicts with the newcomers began to frighten the local native peoples away. In 1598, Juan de Oñate brought the first colonists to New Mexico. Between 1610 and 1680, Hispanic settlement of the Rio Grande valley increased, and former Indian lands were divided into land grants. In 1680 Pueblo Indians united in a revolt that drove out Spanish colonists. The Spanish returned to New Mexico in 1692 and soon thereafter, the Atrisco Land Grant was established for settlement in the Rio Grande Valley. Shepherders from Atrisco carved many images of Christian crosses, sheep, and livestock brands along the escarpment. The Atrisco community retains ties to the escarpment, to the mesa top, and to the lands at the southern end of the escarpment. The Atrisco community retains ties to the escarpment, to the mesa top, and to the lands at the southern end of the monument.

The Trails

What is today the Boca Negra unit of Petroglyph National Monument was originally established in 1973 as Indian Petroglyph State Park. Although it contains fewer than 5% of all petroglyphs in the national monument, the Boca Negra unit is the most heavily visited facility. The trails in Boca Negra Canyon have been designed to provide opportunities for viewing petroglyphs, and to reduce impacts on the escarpment. Three paved trails (Mesa Point, Cliff Base and Macaw) of varying difficulty provide wayside signs that interpret images and their context. Restrooms, water, and picnic shelters are also available. A fourth unpaved trail in the upper area of Boca Negra (Canyon Trail) offers visitors a more secluded and strenuous hike.

Visiting Other Areas

Boca Negra is only one of the three geographic units dividing the 7,236 acres of Petroglyph National Monument. The Piedras Marcadas unit is the farthest north, and contains many petroglyph images that are relatively easy to reach, although parking has not yet been developed in the area of Golf Course Road and Paradise Blvd. Rinconada Canyon, within the Atrisco unit, provides a trailhead with restroom, and offers more seclusion than other units but requires a 2½-mile round-trip walk over unpaved trails to reach the large petroglyph concentrations at the head of the canyon. No water nor services at Rinconada Canyon. The volcanoes can be reached from Paseo del Volcan by a moderately strenuous hike over improved but unpaved trails. Most parts of the national monument can only be reached on foot, and visitors are advised to always bring hiking shoes, hat, sunscreen, and water, and to let others know before setting out. Any hardships encountered in visiting the more remote areas of the monument are offset by the countless rewards to be had.

Pronunciations

Fees & Reservations

PARKING FEES
Boca Negra Canyon

Fees
$1 weekdays/$2 weekends

Details
Per Private Vehicle parking fee charged by the City of Albuquerque. There is no charge for other areas within the Monument. Commercial Fees are charged by the City of Albuquerque. Please phone the city at (505) 873-6620 for rate information.

RESERVATIONS

Reservations are not needed for individuals or families.

For groups of 15 or more who request a ranger guided program contact: Interpretive Ranger (505) 899-0205 x338