Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sunday, March 23--Three Rivers Petroglyphs

Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and drove north to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. Petroglyphs differ from pictographs in that they are carved into the rocks while pictographs are drawn with chalk or an ink substance.

According to the brochure, the petroglyph in the next picture is the most photographed at this site. Of course, we took a picture, too.


Most of the pictures are of animals.

We hiked beyond the .5 mile turn around point so we could view the area from the top of the hill. The elevation was 5217 feet. Our climb was not as steep as yesterdays as we started from 4999 feet.

On our return hike, we saw more well-defined petroglyphs. The petroglyphs are 600-1000 years old. Other subjects for petroglyphs are circles, masks, and faces.

We saw evidence of rabbits and were lucky enough to get a picture of this one on the trail. He hopped away just seconds after the click of the camera.

After eating our lunch, we hiked across the county road to take a look at the village which is partially reconstructed. It was a bustling center for trade around 1300, but by 1400 it was abandoned. The Mogollon (muggy-OWN) who lived there have no identified descendants. It makes you wonder what happened to them since they had been in the area for so long. The Mescalero Apache were the next inhabitants of the area.

As we drove back to Alamogordo, we stopped at the Desert Ranch store to check out their pistachios. Desert Ranch was the first to grow pistachios in this area--1972. There are several ranches that grow pistachios now. We purchased a bag of green chile flavored pistachios.

Tomorrow we will head further north in the rv. We haven't decided on a stopping place yet, so you'll have to check back to see where we stop for the day.

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