NM Indian Ruins and Petroglyphs

By BoomerNShannon - June 18, 2017

We took off by 6:30 to get an early, cooler start. There are a few parks near Albquerque and Grants, NM that we have never been able to hit. We had several hours of riding through more ranch land and oil fields then we hit the red rocks.

There were at least 15 open parking spots in the lot...but this guy arrived late in the evening and had to have the spot next to us.

Got an early morning start...after how hot it got yesterday...we were surprised that it was only 73 and stayed cool for several hours???

A very neat site along the way...depicting Jesus' tomb with the stone rolled back. Quite neat to see at sunrise.

The sky had a distinctive line across it where the day was breaking.

In front of the "Cowboys and Cowgirls" School

Tatum, New Mexico is the home of iron artwork (if you needed any)

Not a National Park but Smokey plays a big part in the National Parks

Quite windy today...Ryan was trying to hold his head on!! Yes, Vicki, I was a Bobblehead again today!!

A huge plant that looks like dandelion fuzz...the 6x9 bag for size comparison

Keva

A cool blue lizard

The visitors center in town had some neat artwork on the buildings and in the parking lots.

This is a nice sitting area with pottery artwork of a lizard wrapped around it

Saw a roadrunner in the desert...of course no photo. I told Ryan that's something I'd like a photo of but it is highly unlikely since they are fast and so are we! Lo and behold, several hours later, a fellow tourist points this guy out to us in a tree at the Petroglyph's NP visitors center.

This squirrel worked hard to keep his body temp cool...he did an army crawl all around.

Looks like storms ahead (between El Malpais and El Morro). We got a few sprinkles but stayed mostly drive. It is a beautiful drive out through here. Only adds about 30min (drive time) to get to Grants. Way better than the highway.