19 April 2016, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Three Rivers, NM

     The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is rare, in that its sole reason for being is the vast number of petroglyphs found in a nearby 50 acre site, the glyphs numbering up around 21,000.  Yes, that's twenty-one thousand!  And they date back to the period from about 900 AD to 1400 AD.
     The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is located about 17 miles north of Tularosa, NM or 28 miles south of Carrizozo, NM on US Highway 54, then east about 5.3 miles on Otero County Road B-030, also known as Three Rivers Road or Forest Road 579.
     The petroglyphs were pecked by hand onto the basaltic rocks, using other rocks to remove bits of the desert varnish, which is composed of a thin layer of iron oxide, manganese oxide and clay that have been deposited by bacteria living on the surface of the rocks.


     Below are some of the pictures that I captured while there.

The pierced sheep, with many geometric patterns on its body, is one of the most well-known of these petroglyphs.

A mountain blue bird?