Rock Images Through Time

A low hill, visible from miles around, and with spectacular panoramic views of central New Mexico, has been the perfect place for people to display rock art for many years.  Very ancient artwork had additions over generations, including vandalism and graffiti from recent times, as well as recent artwork including a baby deer and a windmill.

Kelly’s thoughts…

Riki and I with Josey and his girlfriend, Dalyn, began our hike fairly early across BLM land in the emptiness of north-central New Mexico. There was a bit of a breeze, and the skies were cloudy early, but it was cool and clear and perfectly-New-Mexico for our hike. About 4.5 miles in and out, of course Rango did more like 10 miles, but it was a fine workout for each of us.

This is a remote location that is known, but kept a bit secret.  It is part of a ranch that was purchased not long ago by Santa Fe County to be an open space near the beautiful Galisteo Basin Preserve.  Some 1800 petroglyphs are scattered along the high ridge, concentrated on two main summits.  The highest point has an amazing collection of petroglyphs on the south face where black bedrock outcroppings provide an amazing canvas.  Petroglyphs range from Pre-Colombian through modern works. 

One petroglyph looked like an alien with a giant lollipop.  Several were clearly birds.  There were deer and deer tracks, weird anteater-like creatures, numerous double crosses (one large and one small), snakes, a lot of spirals and odd shapes, people of all sizes and shapes and styles, and many, many others.  It seems like an experimental artwork site.

I’m really curious how we, as current people, value these artworks.  Some are clearly ancient, others more recent, and some are more obviously the work of vandals and hooligans in recent time.  On Petroglyph Hill, there is a piece, “M. M.” in a very pretty script marked, “1886” and another, “O.M. M.M.” marked, “1975.”  For some reason, the first one seems really valuable to me, and the second seems vandalous.  Someone present there in 1886 desiring to record his presence seems like a worthy recording.  Someone from 1975 scribbling his intials seems so disrespectful.  When do human artifacts switch from highly valued items to rubbish?  When will our plastic bottles and mylar balloons found in the wilderness become treasured pieces of history?

Riki’s thoughts…

When I first awoke this morning, I woke groggy and exhausted after a very long week of observing in the classroom. The wind was blowing and it was cloudy. Kelly had already checked the weather forecast, which called for light breeze and a very low chance of precipitation. I am so glad I pushed past my initial desire to just stay home and let the others go on the hike without me! I powered up with a bowl of instant oatmeal, and we were soon on our way. It was a relatively-short drive to the trail head, and it went down a road I had been wanting to drive. We saw some adorable pygmy goat kids, which prompted many stories from me about my kids and their 4H fairs. Josiah, Dalyn and Kelly tolerated my stories of pygmy goats escaping from their pens. The main point of the story is that if you want to know if a fence will keep a goat in, you build it as secure as you can, and then test it with a bucket of water. You throw the water at the fence, and if the water can get through, it is likely that the goats can get through, as well.

We were soon at the trail head and on our way. The trail was not too hard, a bit of up balanced by some down. The rule applied today, up is harder, but down is scarier. The site is full of pictographs on many of the flat surfaces of the rock. The rocks possess a natural varnish that significantly darkens the surfaces, but the rock underneath is much lighter in color. The original artists were probably using stone to cut through the varnished layers. Unfortunately, many people have since added to the artwork with modern tools. There were carvings in the rock that had dates ranging from 1886 to 1975.

The rock art was interestingly varied. There were many pictographs of snakes, one with a pretty distinctive rattle. They reminded me of the research I was doing last night for a lesson plan I was building. There are 11 species of venomous snakes in New Mexico. Ten of them are species of rattlesnakes. Evidently, when the people who were first creating these works of art, there were many snakes in the area. As we were exploring the area, I was expecting to find a model for the snake artwork. We were scrambling up and down pretty steep slopes scattered with big boulders, but we did not see a single snake, even though the weather was cool, a great condition to see cold-blooded animals warming themselves. I suspect the sound of four people and two dogs sent the snakes into deep cover long before they would have been visible to us. We saw a horned toad, a handful of lizards, and some rat middens. I am ok with not seeing any snakes, though.

What a wonderful day I had with Dalyn and Josiah and Kelly! My only complaint is that I am the slowest hiker (both because I am the weakest and the most distracted.) The group had to wait several times for me to catch up, and unfortunately they had time to rest while I was catching up, but they left as soon as I got to them. So, I didn’t get breaks. I was the turtle. They were the hares. It reminded me of when I was a child, riding bikes with my father, mother, and sister. They would get way ahead of me, and then wait until I caught up. As soon as I got to them, they would take off on their ten-speed bikes, leaving me to scramble behind them on my single speed banana seat bike. I guess some things never change. I am destined to be at the back of the group. And maybe that is ok. Somebody has to be the caboose.

I was amazed at how many rocks had art carved on their surfaces. I am quite sure that we did not see them all, so I am excited to go back and find what we missed o our first trip. I love Petroglyph Hill!!!