Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: white sands missile range

Written In Stone at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

Lost in the Land of Enchantment | Friday, November 15, 2024

After our brief detour into Texas to explore Hueco Tanks State Park, we returned to the Land of Enchantment on Thursday evening and spent the night in Alamogordo, which is a favorite stopping place for us whenever we are in the area. Then we were up early on Friday morning so we could spend the majority of our day wandering through the boulders found on top of the ridge at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. This would be our third visit to this amazing ancient site and it seems that we find quite a few new petroglyphs every time we are here! Although we couldn’t stay all day this time because we were going to be meeting up with the family of one of Diane’s friends who live in nearby Carrizozo, I think we might have finally begun to scratch the surface of what can be found here and we are already looking forward to our next visit, whenever that might be. Below are just a small selection of all the interesting and unusual petroglyphs we saw on this visit to Three Rivers.

1 Comment

Rock Art of the Book Cliffs VII

Sunday, August 25, 2024

After spending Saturday morning on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, I left home early on Sunday so I could meet up with a friend in Green River later in the afternoon. Since I had plenty of time before we were supposed to meet I thought it would be a good idea to spend the morning searching for new rock art sites in the Book Cliffs as I slowly made my way to Green River. Unfortunately, the weather would not cooperate with those plans today thanks to the stormy weather we’ve been experiencing lately and just as soon as I neared the edge of the Book Cliffs it started to rain pretty hard which made the roads I wanted to drive slick and muddy, so I had to turn around and find some better roads. I did my best to get around in the wet conditions, but I ended up spending most of the day just revisiting sites I haven’t been to in a while. I guess I’ll have to come back to search out the new sites when it’s a bit drier out.

2 Comments

Messages in Stone Below the Sierra Blanca

Return to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site
My 40th Birthday Foray into Arizona and New Mexico
Saturday, February 15, 2020

After spending an amazing night at White Sands National Park, we stopped in Alamogordo for a quick breakfast and then headed over to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site so we could spend the rest of the day there. Just like with White Sands, we had visited the Three Rivers petroglyphs Site during our Honeymoon Adventure three years ago, but back then I didn’t realize just how many petroglyphs are found here and we did not have nearly enough time to really explore this area as much as I would have liked, so I’ve wanted to return to spend more time here searching for petroglyphs. This time we planned to spend most of the day hiking along the top ridge until sunset to see what we could find. I was a little concerned that there might not be enough to keep us busy for a full day, but I was again surprised by just how many petroglyphs are found here and we still didn’t have enough time to see them all! I guess a third visit in the future is probably in order the next time we find ourselves down this way!

2 Comments

Returning to the White Sands of the Tularosa Basin

White Sands National Park: Same White Sand, Different Name
My 40th Birthday Foray into Arizona and New Mexico
Valentines Day | Friday & Saturday, February 14-15, 2020

Three years ago Diane and I had visited White Sands National Monument for the first time while we were traveling through the deserts of the southwest on our Honeymoon Adventure. We really enjoyed our experience camping within the world’s largest gypsum dunefield, so when I started planning my 40th birthday trip I had considered returning for another overnight visit and added it to the possible list of places we could go. While it wasn’t high up on my list at first, as soon as I found out that White Sands National Monument officially became the 62nd designated National Park on December 20, 2019 when the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 was signed into law, I quickly moved it up on the list since I figured it was probably going to start getting even busier in the future now that it’s a full-fledged National Park!

4 Comments

Green River Launch Complex

Saturday, December 30, 2017

I’ve known about the existence of the Utah Launch Complex, also known as the Green River Launch Complex and Green River Missile Base in Green River for a long time, but I’ve never made the effort to go and check it out before. I always figured I’d have time to do that later and kept putting it off every time I was nearby. Earlier this year while visiting White Sands National Monument on our honeymoon, the thought entered the back of my mind that I should really take the time to get over to Green River and check out the old base sooner rather than later. So when I saw that Kurt from Expedition Utah was arranging a little trip to visit the site on Saturday, I knew it was time to finally go and check it out!

3 Comments