Petroglyph National Monument
National Monument · Albuquerque, New Mexico
A line of extinct volcanoes on the west edge of Albuquerque spilled basalt across the mesa about 200,000 years ago, and the boulders that broke off the escarpment weather to a dark desert varnish. Between roughly 1300 and 1700, Ancestral Puebloan people and later Spanish settlers pecked through that varnish to the pale rock beneath, and the monument now protects around 24,000 images along seventeen miles of escarpment - one of the largest concentrations in North America. They are not in a remote canyon: housing estates run right up to the boundary, which is part of what the site is about, because the monument was created in 1990 after a long fight over roads and development. Four separate areas are open, from a ten-minute paved loop at Boca Negra to the volcanoes themselves, and you drive between them rather than walk. The pueblos regard the images as living rather than archaeological, which is the frame the monument asks visitors to use.
6510 Western Trail NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87120, United States
Visitor center open 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM. Trailheads open 8 AM - 5 PM.
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