16-RUIDOSO, NEW MEXICO-Part 2

After a day getting settled and seeing the museum, we packed a lunch and drove about 50 miles out of town to find the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. All the searching I did on the web for things to see in this area, this particular item did not show up. However, I noticed it marked clearly on the state map.

Well, when it comes to Petroglyphs, it attracts us like bees to honey. When I looked up this place on the web, it sounded like a gold mine for us…and it was.

As we headed out of Ruidoso, there was frozen frost on the trees. Always pretty as long as the frost is not on the highway. Today it was only on the trees.

When we got close to the site we turned off the main highway. There was a mountain range in the distance that was pretty against the flat of the dessert that we had been driving through.

So out in the middle of nowhere, we found our destination.

It was interesting to know that these petroglyphs were drawn by native people over 600 years ago. What was even more interesting is that in this small area, they have found over 20,000 individual petroglyphs.

SPOILER ALERT!!! We found 19,574, and I am showing you the pictures of ALL of them!!!

OK, maybe not quite that many. But we did see a lot of them and it blessed our socks off!! It was a treasure trove of petroglyphs. What an amazing find to see all of these items of distant history right in front of us.

First of all, the web says that this is a one-half mile trail. If this is true, it is the longest half-mile we have either one been on. (We have walked a WHOLE LOT further to see just one or two petroglyphs.) The trail is described as “rugged.” No kidding!!!

There is a gain of about 135 feet in elevation, not bad, but it is a rocky, rocky trail. I haven’t used my cane for several months, but I did on this excursion and was very glad I had it for stability in stepping on and around all of those rocks. It was also handy just in case I might have had to do battle with any rattlesnakes. Thankfully, it did not come to that.

There are several drawings on this rock including a thunderbird.

We saw several with bear claws on them.

Some, like this one, I don’t know what it is, but was just so impressed with the clarity of it…after all it is more than 600 years old.

There were several bird designs.

It was at about this point that I began to wonder if this was an art class for the children in the tribe, where they learned to draw. There were so many, many drawings.

Sometimes there were several rocks close together with a lot of drawings on them.

A few of the designs looked like Indian blanket designs.

A number of them show big horn sheep.

This big horn sheep has three arrows going into it. Two on top and one in the chest.

Masks or faces were another popular design.

This is probably a scorpion.

This is the only one we saw that contained a rabbit (upper right).

There were a lot of versions of big horn sheep.

I think maybe this one was the Kindergarten Class at Mother’s Day making hand and foot prints for Mom.

There were a lot more petroglyphs that we saw and took pictures of, but I am sure I am on the verge of boring you to death, so will change the subject.

Our final stop in Ruidoso was to the Spencer Performing Arts Center. Our friend, Bill Smith (from Boerne, TX) had told us it was a “must see” stop.

This is a drop dead beautiful building. When we stopped by it was just to see the building, not to attend a performance which we would have liked to have done. Maybe next time.

The building itself is a striking design. The structure on the right side is a two story sunroom/dining room.

Inside the sunroom is a glass art piece by the renown glass artist Dale Chihulli from the Seattle area. This one is called Southwest Sunrise.

Several Chihulli pieces adorn other areas in the Center….

…including a large wall piece and …

…several light fixtures.

We were shown the inside of the theater. It has a 5,000 square foot stage and seats more than 500 people.

Back stage is a signature wall of people who have performed there. Hal Holbrook performed his monologue of Mark Twain and did this cartoon and note. Don has seen this monologue on TV and it is his favorite,

There were notes from Ray Price,

The Smother’s Brothers,

Rich Little and many, many more. What a treat it was to have a private tour of this building,

We had seen on numerous occasions, signs on the road indicating the possibility of elk in the area. Of course one never sees them when there are signs that say that they are around.

However, on the way back to the motorhome, suddenly there was a large herd crossing the road near us.

It was a nice way to bid farewell to Ruidoso.

Our next visit will be to Silver City, New Mexico.