Rio Grande River, Petroglyph National Monument, Continental Divide, Prairie Dogs, and The Painted Desert/Petrified Forest

Albuquerque NM to Holbrook AZ

Packing gets faster every day. We had everything put away in 30-40 minuets this morning. Yay for teamwork! The Rio Grande river flows on the west side of Albuquerque so after a stop at Walmart we went down to a small park to see the river.

It was beautiful, flowing far below. It was so cool seeing a river that appears in so many western movies.

Close to the river is the Petroglyph National Monument, a bare, forbidding arc of basalt rock, the results of a long ago volcanic lava flow.

There are five ancient volcanoes in the area, but the is not what gained National Monument status. In the area of the park are thousands of petroglyphs, drawings scratched into the stone by native Americans generations ago.

We started our visit at the visitor center.

After getting a map and directions from the ranger we headed out to the Boca Negra Canyon, a short route that had approximately one hundred petroglyphs. 

We finished exploring and got on the road again, headed for the Painted desert.

We crossed the continental divide, so of course we stopped for pictures!

It was Esther’s turn to drive and we planned to switch out at the state welcome center but I missed the entrance, so we decided to stop eat the next exit. There happened to be a small prairie dog town just feet from the edge of the road. Thee adults were standing at their den entrances . They were soooooo cute!

We made it to The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest with a few hours to explore so we decided to do as many of the stops on the of the twenty four mile drive as possible then come back tomorrow to do the rest.

The Painted Desert was absolutely stunning. It is a must see in person sort of beauty. Pictures don’t do it justice.

Old Route 66 used to run through the park. It has been removed and the ground returned to nature but an old Studebaker marks the spot it used to cross the park road.

We stopped at a cool ancient Pueblo village that only has crumbling foundations left. Unfortunately I forgot to get pictures. We only made it to one petrified forest stop, a giant log bridge. We will go back and see the rest tomorrow.

Our camp for the night is Holbrook KOA, AZ.