La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site

I awoke in Pecos, NM this morning at around 6 am after the long drive up from Carlsbad. I had originally wanted to visit Pecos NHP to check out the Glorietta Battlefield site, but the park was not set to open for at least another 2 hours. Instead of waiting I decided to hit the road and head over to Santa Fe to check out the Cieneguilla Petroglyphs.

The site did not disappoint. It was a short hike from the parking lot to a basalt cliff where I found hundreds of petroglyphs pecked into the rock.

The site is known primarily for two types of images. There are a large number of images of Kokopelli, the humpbacked flute player, carved into the rock.

In addition, there are many birds pecked into the stone.

Besides the birds, there are many other animal images. Some are obvious, others not so much.

There are also numerous human figures and faces or masks.

Some of the images appeared to be monsters.

Others seemed to be simply interesting patterns.

As I started to make my way back to the car, something caught my attention, it was a tree decorated with rusty old cans.

While normally I would find such a sight repulsive, in this case I found it to be interesting if not artistic. Just beyond the "can tree" was a stile in the fence that led up to what appeared to be a cave.

I decided to go check it out. I found a few more petroglyphs there.