Customer Reviews

Petroglyph National Monument

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very thin, very slim, fifteen-page book about Petroglyph National Monument which is just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The book contains several nice photos of various Anasazi and even Spanish petrogylphs, of the rolling hills of the West Mesa, and of the craggy rocks around the area's long-extinct volcanoes.
It's also got some very interesting information in it--for instance, the monument contains over fifteen THOUSAND petroglyphs, rare butterflies live on top of the highest volcano, and a representative of a nearby housing development is partly (and unbelievably) in charge of making sure the monument's land isn't exploited. (I'm sure he would never DREAM of putting houses there.)
The book also has good information on the area's plants and animals, its geology, and the relationships between the Native Americans and the early Spanish.
But the book isn't perfect. I picked it up specifically for information on the monument's most noticeable features--its volcanoes--and found out almost nothing. Only one of the several volcanoes is mentioned by name. There are no real photos of the volcanoes, with the exception of one close-up look at Vulcan Volcano's craggy side. There's not a single mention of the legendary 1947 prank in which college kids filled one of the volcanoes with old tires, set the tires on fire, and caused half of Albuquerque to jump in their cars and leave town out of fear of a volcanic eruption. There's nothing about the monument's trails, and the map on its back cover is incredibly insufficient.
I'm glad this book exists. I am. There's not enough written for the average non-anthropologist/non-geologist on the area, and this book is easy to read and informative. But it's not complete. Get it though, study up on the Internet, get a copy of the detailed USGS map for Petroglyph National Monument, and then get out there and explore it yourself. If you live near or in Albuquerque, it couldn't be closer, and the odds are you've never been there.
Oh, and a side note: Vulcan Volcano, the monument's highest volcano, has been chosen as the official start of the Albuquerque Urban Trail, an approximately two-hundred-mile-long turquoise-blazed trail that will start at Vulcan Volcano, wind north and south all over Albuquerque's city streets--from Old Town to the Rio Grande to downtown to the university area to old Route 66--and then end up on top of Sandia Peak overlooking the city. It's going to be awesome, and will feature not only the volcanoes but large portions of both sides of this fascinating monument.