Visiting Petroglyph National Monument In Albuqueque, NM: Rinconada Canyon

The day after visiting two of Petroglyph National Monument’s sites – Boca Negra Canyon and Piedras Marcadas Canyon – Shae and I went to visit a third of its sites – Rinconada Canyon.

There’s a fourth site which is part of Petroglyph National Monument called Volcanoes Day Use Area, but there aren’t any petroglyphs there, so we decided to give that site a miss.

Rinconada Canyon has a decent-sized parking area, but it’s closed at sunset. We visited fairly late in the day, so we parked in one of the handful of spaces just outside of the main parking lot to ensure our car didn’t get locked in or towed.

If you visit Rinconada Canyon but haven’t visited any of Petroglyph National Monument’s other sites yet, there are some information boards letting you know more about the petroglyphs.

Unlike a couple of the other sites, Rinconada Canyon has restrooms available in the parking lot.

The Rinconada Canyon Trail is a 2.2 mile loop trail. You can only see petroglyphs on one side of the loop trail which is the right hand side when you’re first setting off.

The trail was initially fairly wide which made it easier for social distancing (we visited during the early stages of COVID-19), but it narrows as you progress along the path.

Dogs are only allowed on the section of the trail which doesn’t pass the petroglyphs. When setting off on the trail, you’d therefore need to head left on the Return Trail section rather than the Petroglyph Viewing Trail section.

You have to walk about 0.75 miles before you start seeing any petroglyphs, but from that point you should see plenty as there are about 300 petroglyphs along the Rinconada Canyon Trail.

In addition to seeing some animal petroglyphs, we saw plenty of real live animals because there were loads of rabbits. We visited on Easter Sunday, so it was like the Easter Rabbit was following us around.

The petroglyphs at Rinconada Canyon are fairly far away, so if your eyesight isn’t great then you’ll want to bring along some binoculars. The photos below were all taken when zoomed in on my phone which is why the images aren’t quite so sharp.

There isn’t any shade along the route, so be aware of that if you’ll be visiting in the heat of the summer. Visiting in mid-April meant that it was a much more reasonable temperature, although it was still pretty warm. I’d just gotten an extremely short haircut (we bought a pair of clippers seeing as barber shops were closed), so I managed to get a sunburned head despite it being fairly cloudy that day.

The walk back on the return trail doesn’t provide any petroglyphs, but you’re rewarded with beautiful views of mountains in the distance instead.

Final Thoughts

Shae and I enjoyed visiting three of the four sites making up Petroglyph National Monument more than I thought we would. It’s a great place to check out if you’re visiting Albuquerque, as well as being a perfect place to stretch your legs if you’re just driving through to somewhere else.