Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The day before the IRVA conference officially started, when quite a few of the attendees took a field trip to the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, I headed north to visit the petroglyphs at the Three Rivers site.  This place is located off of highway 54 north of Tularosa.  It is a BLM site, but because of the government shut down, the cute little visitor’s center was not open.  In spite of that, the hiking trail through the lava outcroppings where the rock art was located was clearly marked and easy to follow.  You just had to look out for the rattlesnakes! 

This rock art was created by the Jornada Mogollon people who lived in this area from 200 to 1450 A.D., and there are about 21,000 individual glyphs located there.  The area had more water available back then, and some habitation sites have been excavated.  I found the rock art interesting because of the detailed designs of a variety of birds and animals, abstract geometric patterns, and also the masks.

Here are views of the surrounding landscape.

The white stripe far in the distance of this photo was actually the northern part of the White Sands National Park.

Fascinating rock art.

Here are a few of the many masks there, many pecked on the edge of a boulder.

I often get asked if I get any energetic impressions when visiting rock art sites.  The answer in general is "no".  My sense is that most of these sites are located where they are because of their alignment with the sun, or because they are gathering places.  This is totally different for ancient megalithic sites that are located on energetically active locations, which can be quite active long after the original builders of these sites have left the area.