Petroglyphs and Racing Cars

4/15/2014 We went out to the Petroglyph National Monument. Petroglyph National Monument protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, featuring designs and symbols carved onto volcanic rocks by Native Americans and Spanish settlers 400 to 700 years ago. These images are a valuable record of cultural expression and hold profound spiritual significance for contemporary Native Americans and for the descendants of the early Spanish settlers. (thanks NPS).
The visitors center is in the middle of the park and then you drive to parking lots and hike to see the petroglyphs. We drove to one of the areas that was listed as handicap accessible. There was paved trails that a person could use but only if one was walking as they paved right over large rocks and put steps in the path. Some of the petroglyphs were right close so we could see them easily and they had a small viewing telescope for handicap people to get an up close look at the native drawings.
I held the dog and Becky and Patrick hiked up the hill.............

Patrick earns his Junior Ranger Certificate

Chillis chillin'.

View from the top of the hill of Albuquerque.

I am down there by the little building holding the dog :-(

All the petroglyphs here were drawn on rocks left by a volcano. It is not extinct but it hasn't erupted in a few thousand years. I wondered why they chose to draw here? Did they know that white man would build a parking lot and come to look at what they might have considered some kids graffiti or was this an important religious site? We won't ever know so we moved on to lunch.
We ate at a local Albuquerque chain called Bob's Burgers (no relationship to the Fox TV show). Patrick and I had chili dogs and Becky had a Patty Melt. With lunch done, we went across the street to have the car washed and then made our way to the . Unser Racing Museum
I always knew about Al and Little Al but had no idea that they were from a long line of racers and had such a history on Pike's Peak. It was interesting learning about the family and their accomplishments.

A hand built car made by Jerry Unser for racing Pike's Peak.

Indy 500 cars

Patrick tried the racing simulator.

A winning Indy car around the steel ring are all the wins by the Unser family.

This motorcycle is made of parts from race cars.

They had two buildings, the first had the racing museum and the second had old cars and trucks that the Unsers collected and restored. It also included a room with all the trophies the Unsers had won during the years, some old racing suits and other memorabilia in it. A third room held art that they collected or had been given and many, many magazines.