THIS SMALL PANEL WAS MY FAVORITE FIND OF THE DAY. I DECIDED TO CALL IT "LEGS".

The Best Laid Plans —  A Little Rock Art Trip Goes Awry

Prologue…

A few years back I was exploring in the desert backcountry of Arizona, when I happened upon a gentleman who knew me through my blog.  We ended up spending a couple of days exploring together, exchanging experiences and ideas.  This gentleman told me of an insolate outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, that, in his opinion was an extraordinary work of rock imagery.  Later, when he sent me a photo of the petroglyph, I had to agree with him —  it was stunning.  My new friend also provided me with some general location information — no GPS coordinates but enough information that I felt like I could find the site.  So, as I often do, I tucked this information away and decided that someday I would find that beautiful glyph.  As you will see, that someday became June 3, 2025. 


A Little Rock Art Trip Takes Shape…


In early Spring I signed my beautiful great neice up for the Texas Tech Girl’s Golf Camp in Lubbock, Texas.  The camp was to held Sunday, May 31, 2025 through Wednesday, June 4, 2025, so I would have a few days on my own after dropping her off in Lubbock.  I decided to head up to Santa Fe and spend one day looking for a very special petroglyph purported to be in the area and another day exploring the Red Dot Trail in White Canyon.  My good friend Charles Pollard had also encouraged me to stop by Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe to see the “Miracle Staircase”.


A Medical Problem Causes a Change in Plans…


My neice Lilly and I left my lakehouse in McQueeney early on the morning of Sunday, June 1, 2025, and drove to Lubbock to drop her off at golf camp.  On the drive that morning, my bladder began to feel a little irritated.  I thought perhaps the large decaf coffee I had that morning perhaps was not decaf at all, and that the caffeine was causing the irritation in my bladder.  The symptoms I experienced that morning were mild, and did not alarm me at at.  But on the drive up to Santa Fe that afternoon and early evening, I began to feel much worse.  By 10:00 p.m. that evening I began to get very worried that I was headed for an episode of Acute Urinary Retention (AUR).  But I still held out hope that I just had an extremely irritated bladder or perhaps a uninary track infection of some sort.  As the night wore on I got very little sleep as the discomfort gradually turned into pain.  So bright and early I headed to a Christus Urgent Care facility near my hotel.  The doctor that saw me checked for infection and, finding none, said he thought I was in the early states of AUR and that I needed a foley catheter.  He also said his facility did not provide this service and that I would need to go to the hospital and a bona fide emergency room for this care.  So that is what I did.  By the time the ER staff attempted to insert the foley catheter, I was in great pain.  The first attempt failed, but on the second try they got me fitted with the catheter and advised me to see my urologist in one week to have it removed.  I spent the rest of this day resting and getting some much needed sleep.  I was still on the fence as to whether I would attempt to find the petroglyph that was my primary target for this little trip.

A Bust and a Few New Petroglyps…


I got up feeling somewhat refreshed on Tuesday morning, so I decided to give finding my target glyph a shot.  The ER doctor said there was no reason I couldn’t do some moderate hiking while wearing a foley catheter.  I drove from Santa Fe to the area I wanted to explore and spent the morning without finding the petroglyph I was looking for.  In fact, I found virtually no glyphs in that area.  I did enjoy a nice hike and some beautiful scenery, so not all was lost.  I decided not to even attempt the Red Dot Trail in White Canyon.  Instead I decided to drive over to the east rim of La Bajada Mesa and explore above the Santa Fe River and the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph site.


The East Rim of La Bajada Mesa…


I drove as far south as I could on a dirt road that ended on the east rim of La Bajada Mesa.  The area I explored was quite some distance from the La Cieneguilla Site, but as I hiked along the rim it began to look promising.  In short order I began to find a few isolates and a couple of small panels.  Nothing spectacular, but some interesting elements and petroglphs that I had not seen before.  And the views down to the Santa Fe River were quite nice.  Unfortunately there was thick, knee-high dead grass both along the rim and down on the eastern escarpment of the mesa.  Since I didn’t have my snake protection and since footing was perilous because of the thick grass, I didn’t even attempt to climb down the escarpment to get a better view of  the rocky area below the rim.  Perhaps winter would be a better time to explore this area —  I am sure I could find more glyphs down low.  Here are a few pictures from my explorations in that area.  For a more complete gallery of photos from the site I am calling Bajada East Rim, look here.

VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEASTERN RIM OF LA BAJADA MESA, OVERLOOKING THE SANTA VIEW RIVER GORGE. NOTE THE HIGH DEAD GRASS, WHICH MADE EXPLORING THE AREA DIFFICULT.
THE FIRST SMALL PANEL I SPOTTED, JUST BELOW THE RIM.
A NICE LITTLE ANTHROPOMORPHIC FIGURE.
ADJACENT TO THE SMALL ANTHROPOMORPH IS A PAIR OF LEGS THAT WRAP AROUND THE EDGE OF A BOULDER.
A NICELY EXECUTED CHECKERBOARD GEOMETRIC ELEMENT.
GLYPH WITH A VIEW.
ANOTHER SMALL PANEL JUST BELOW THE RIM OF THE MESA.
ANOTHER NICE GEOMETRIC ELEMENT.
ONE FINAL VIEW OF THE SOUTHEASTERN RIM OF LA BAJADA MESA. I TOOK THIS AT THE POINT I TURNED AROUND AND HIKED BACK TO MY TRUCK AT THE START OF MY SHORT HIKE.

A Couple of Hours at The La Cieneguilla Site….


After I finished exploring up on La Bajada Mesa, I drove down to the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site.  It had been a number of years since I last visited the site (July of 2017, to be exact), so I decided to spend a couple of hours climbing around on the north end of the escarpment.  I also walked a portion of the rim while I was at it.  Overall, I was disappointed by what I found, but anytime you can climb around a beautiful landscape and find a few petroglyphs, it is a good day.  For a complete gallery of photos I took at La Cieneguilla that day, look here.  Here are a few of my favorites from that day.  

THIS PANEL HAS A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING.
TWO BIRDS AND AN UNUSUAL ELEMENT WITH BIRD LIKE FEET.
WHAT APPEARS TO BE A PANEL FOCUSED ON SERPENTS.

Winding Up The Trip…

I finished up at La Cieneguilla a little before 3:00 p.m. and headed to downtown Santa Fe for a visit to the “Miracle Staircase” at Loretto Chapel.  I spent a relaxing 45 minutes at the Chapel then headed to Clovis, New Mexico, where I spent the night before picking up Lilly the next morning at the golf camp on the campus of Texas Tech in Lubbock.

This little trip did not turn out as I hoped, primarily because of the medical issues I faced.  I am most grateful that I got to take my niece to the golf camp and to to see a few petroglyphs and the Loretto Chapel in the process.  As I write this blog, I am still dealing with my medical issue —  for an update, look here.