Three Rivers Petroglyphs

After Jennifer and I visited White Sands we decided we wanted to visit the petroglyphs which we believed were only 22 miles further down the road.  As with most sacred sites I have visited, there is a pilgrimage you must first undertake before arriving; a pilgrimage of it always being further than you anticipate, a certain exhaustion that begins to strip away the familiar and surrounds you with a feeling of  being "lost within the mists".  It is my belief that sacred sites remain sacred because they are not on the tourist route and not as easily found.  That was the case with the Petroglyph Site.

Although Jennifer and I left at different times, we both got lost at the same cross roads along the way, felt like we were going the wrong way, felt we would never arrive and that it was certainly more than 22 miles, which it probably was.  This time I left first and arrived first and was able to guide Jennifer in when she felt lost.   We were able to park and stay at the entrance to the site and after circling round and round, I finally found a space that felt comfortable and paid my $2.00 fee for the night.

This is what the park looked like while climbing up to the petroglphs.  We are in the middle of nowhere.

 We had just enough daylight left to climb up to the stones and I was in such a hurry I took off wearing sandals instead of socks and tennis shoes which left me feeling very vulnerable when a man also walking the ruins warned us of rattlesnakes.  I was in some otherworldly trance and just kept climbing upwards until some rattling noise at one particular place got my attention and made me hope I was far enough to the other side of the path to avoid whatever was making that noise.

The energy built the further I went up and the petroglphs starting to become more and more concentrated until I reached a peak where I became nauseous from the energy overload.  I have walked many, many stone circles in some very ancient lands, but these rocks were kicking my butt!  On the way back down I was still disoriented and lost the path, making my own way back down the hill.  Those stones were glorious.

Jennifer walking the petroglyph path

 

As the sun began to set, Jennifer and I sat outside listening to coyotes and sharing our stories.  Before too long the sky was filled with stars, the Milky Way was visible and I remembered it was Samhain, the time when the veils are very thin.