Petroglyphs!!!!

Oh my goodness... So cool!!

After we had trouble a couple of times looking for arches, Brad decided to go online to see if he could find better directions.  In looking for the arches, he also found pages about seeing lots of petroglyphs and pueblitos.  We set off today to see some petroglyphs.

After driving 19 miles on very bumpy gravel and dirt roads, we began to see the signs, as promised.  This was an easier hike than we've done to get to the arches, for the most part, but the drive was interesting!

One lane bridge... Our truck barely fit!!

And a river crossing, through the river bed... Not a good idea to go after a rain!

So worth it, though!

We saw most of these figures drawn on the canyon walls.

Our walk followed a path, pretty well marked, along the base of the cliffs and through a wash for parts of it. We had to keep scanning the walls of the canyon, because these drawings were all along the base of the cliffs.  Some that we missed on the way in, we caught on the way back out.

This is at what they call "44 Panel"

You can see why it's called 44 Panel.  When I first saw the design, I thought it was someone's bad attempt at making swastikas, but then Brad pointed out the "44".  I couldn't find anything online that explained why that particular symbol was there, but after seeing several pueblo communities, Brad and I thought it might be showing the layout of their pueblos.  Who knows.

Now we're hiking back...this is what most of our walk looked like.

Some drawings we missed walking in.

There was a pueblito along the way, way up high on the cliffs.  We decided to skip the climbing it would have involved to get there.  We have maps of where others are located, and are going to do a pueblito day soon.  Basically a pueblito is a little pueblo, built mainly for lookout.  The one in this canyon was hard to spot, but it's almost in the center of this picture, between the upper and lower ridges.

Such a cool day!

We decided on the way home that we deserved a night out for dinner, and since neither of us has a ballgame on tonight, it's the perfect night.  We're headed to Rubio's, the awesome Mexican restaurant in Aztec.