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Petroglyph National Monument
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Once a popular site for ancestral Puebloans, Petroglyph National Monument contains more than 25,000 images chiseled into stone by the Native Americans sometime between 1300 and the 1680s. Other images located in the monument are thought to have been drawn well before the Puebloans' time some as early as 2000 B.C. or well after Puebloans left the area, as Spanish settlers left their own marks in the 1700s.
Trails ranging from easy to strenuous roam throughout the monument, allowing visitors to look at the ancient drawings, which depict images ranging from religious deities to animals. Visitors can hike through one of the monument's three canyons or explore one of the volcano loops, which travel around the volcanic cores that sit at the monument's edge. Watch out for rattlesnakes as well as the monument's famous millipedes, both of which are common in the area!
Before visitors start exploring the monument, though, it's best to stop by the visitor's center. A destination in itself, the center is housed in the former home of Dr. Sophie Aberle, the first practicing applied anthropologist in the United States. Dr. Aberle spent years studying the Native Americans, focusing on women's lives in the pueblos and helping them improve their conditions, before donating the house to the monument in the 1990s.
Today, the visitor's center is a great spot to get information on all the monument's various trails and to learn more about the petroglyphs through informational exhibits. In the summer, local artisans perform daily demonstrations for vacationers.
Petroglyph National Monument is open year round, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for New Year's, Thanksgiving and Christmas days. The visitor's center closes early on Thanksgiving and Christmas eves.
Download a Map of Petroglyph NationalMonument
(Map Provided by the U.S. National Park Service)
From I-40 (east or west), take exit 154 north on Unser Blvd. The Visitor Center is about 3.5 miles north.
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