Petroglyphs and Painted Desert

What might two dads and their eldest (adult) kids do after driving 1000+ miles to Albuquerque, before finishing their drive to Grand Canyon? Hint: playing in the waterpark at their hotel is not the correct answer. Answer: they decided to take a scenic detour at Petroglyph National Monument near Albuquerque.

Yes! One more stamp in my national parks passport! Supposedly there were like 100 petroglyphs on the Mesa Point Trail in Boca Negra Canyon. I think we probably missed a few. One thing we didn't miss were the views of Albuquerque. On such a beautiful day, it was a great little diversion. It was a short, easy trek up to viewpoints into the canyon on one side and Albuquerque on the other. And, though we didn't have it to ourselves, we only saw a handful of other visitors.

We also veered off the highway a bit at Petrified Forest National Park. But since we spent all our "free time" at Petroglyph NM, we opted not to drive the 26 miles out of our way to see the "forest". We did take a little stroll at the Painted Desert, where it was just as windy as I remember it from last time.

This is the first in a series of posts on my 2012 travels. Up next: Hiking the Grand Canyon

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

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