Three Rivers, New Mexico Petroglyph Site Visited by Red Hatters

April 27, 2013

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society drove to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site to explore the amazing rock art created by the Jornada Mogollon people who disappeared about 800 years ago. More than 21,000 glyphs of birds, humans, animals, fish, insects and plants, as well as numerous geometric and abstract designs are scattered over 50 acres of New Mexico's northern Chihuahuan Desert. The art is created by using stone tools to remove the dark patina of the exterior of the rock. A small pueblo ruin is nearby.  On the village site, there are foundations of three types of prehistoric buildings which were partially excavated in 1976. The trail is quite rugged and only three of us ventured up the mountain to see the glyphs. The other members joined us for lunch later at Tulie Cantina in Tularosa, NM where the food was delicious and we had a lovely afternoon visiting.

As I am not an expert in translating these petroglyphs, I'll leave this to your imagination

One of my critters and isn't he cute!

Could be a dwelling or a cake?

I can't figure out if its an animal or an insect

Centipede?

I believe this is a person

Could be a baby all wrapped up

There were many of these and sometimes they were plainer and on a body

This one might be a puma or mountain lion. There's a story there somewhere.

Clearly a foot, but what's the other sign?

This rock had so much on it, I called it the newspaper rock

Bighorn Sheep and I didn't even know we had these in New Mexico

Appears to be quite a voluptuous body blessed with those stars around her head

No doubt, a deer. Interesting body anatomy.

Geometric jargon of some sort?

Beats me!

Another big cat of some sort, rather cartoonish

View from up the mountain

Darla, one of my sister mountain climbers

Jean, communicating with the real world!

Is it time to head back yet?

L to R: Jean, Carla and Darla photographed by a nice gentleman

L to R: Jean, Forest Ranger Art, and Darla

L to R: Alice, Esperanza, Rosa, Darla and Jean at Tulie Cantina

As you can see by the photos, New Mexico truly is the Land of Enchantment. We did not have time to explore the village site and will return to do this another day. Also, I took many more pictures, but how many can one stand at a sitting?? Evidently, I was tired of taking pictures by the time we got to the restaurant because, as you can see, only one is printed here.

This is all I have to say for now.