Roving Cooks

February 20: Alamogordo, NM to St John’s, AZ. 313 miles, 5 hours

Time to make our way to a new state today! We had a longer drive planned to make it to the Petrified Forest National Park area. About an hour outside Alamogordo is spot called the Three Rivers Petroglyphs. We left early and pulled in there for breakfast and a hike. Like the super-frontierswoman I’ve always been meant to be, I made chocolate chip pancakes overlooking mountains. Then on Rattlesnake alert, we hiked up the trail of primitive rock drawings.

According to the official guide, there are thousands in this site that are hundreds of years old. Some looked obviously old. Others, questionable – check out the picture of the bird print – or is it a peace sign? Drawings on the wooden picnic area clearly looked recent. It was fascinating to think about the art here in New Mexico circa 1400 compared to art in other areas of the world at the same time. As well as to think about likely similarities and wonder about differences between early art in different areas of the world and culture. Does every early civilization have a depiction of the sun? And how do they compare? Goats probably only appear in some areas. If someone knows of a examples of primitive art overlaid on a map with timestamps, I would love to see it!

Continuing on through large remote stretches of desert land, we came to the Very Large Array. These huge satellites (as seen in movies from our formative years like Contact and Independence Day) are spread out across a barren valley. The Visitors Center was closed, but given the lack of people for miles, we stretched and took a few pictures before continuing on into Arizona. If you’re interested in virtually visiting, the Jodie Foster narrated documentary is a click away.