Point of Rocks, Flat Lake area - BLM and State Lands

Point of Rocks in distance.

Petroglyphs

Excavation

Excavation with pack rat nest.

Point of Rocks

Excavation

Cans

Barrel cactus.

Barrel cactus

Petroglyphs

Petroglyph

I did three hikes out to this area in December and January. The first was to a petroglyph site I had read about years ago.  On kind of whim I decided to locate it on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, a few days before Christmas.I had put a pin on Google Earth and on On-X where I thought the site was located, but hadn't consulted the former and didn't use the latter in my efforts. I was just relying on memory and instinct. At first, Nessie and I tried a small hill covered with small basalt boulders that was just a half- mile north of the county road. No petroglyphs there, but we did see the first of several small man-made excavations with the appearance of low wall on the perimeter on the hilltop. I realized we were much too far east from what I could remember and so began driving out again on the good county roads. At first we went northeast, where we did spy a likely looking hill of larger basalt boulders, but they were quite close to some private property ( actually this bouldery hill is half private, half public land) and I didn't want to accidentally encounter anyone who might be nosy as to what I was doing.

 On we went eastwards through Flat Lake, a very modest depression that occasionally fills with water, and then past an old ranch that had the appearance of being abandoned, on into an area of large coppice dunes of reddish-orange sand. I kept eyeing a low hill that kept popping up to my left as we drove on the increasingly sandy, undulating, but still easily driven county road. I decided this was my hill and we found a place to park at wide spot in one of the swales. Nessie was reluctant most of the way, I'm not sure why, and the walking was entirely in loose sand, but we made it to the top pretty quickly. Shortly thereafter I began finding the petroglyphs on the black boulders submerged in the sand. I smiled at the ease of finding them, giving that oftentimes while armed with directions, apps and waypoints locating such an obscure place can prove quite difficult indeed. I circled the the little oval of a hilltop several times before I was satisfied I had seen most of what the place had to offer. We headed back. This time I let Nessie choose the route and we ended up a little west of the truck, but all was good.

 The second trip I investigated a prominent cuesta-like hill that stands some distance apart from the many pointy and rounded hills that make up Point of Rocks. There was another excavation on top and I found  a couple of petroglyph panels in the jumble of boulders against the low cliffs on the west side. I then went after a couple likely looking ridges that lie just to the west of Flat Lake, but found nothing much in the way of artifacts or rock art.

On a third trip I hiked to a trio of hills that are the southern edge of the main mass of Point of Rocks, and then also look at isolated hill very close to the county road. I found more excavations, one with a very obvious attempt at a wall around its rim, but no petroglyphs. There was the occasional chunk or flake of point making material but little else produced by humans that I could find as I wandered over rock and sand through the creosote, mesquite and stubby grass that filled the many shallow depressions scattered over the area. The desert was warm each outing, too warm really for the middle of winter, but I enjoyed being out there in an area I had only visited a few times over the 28 years I've lived here. 

Constructed ring

Agate chunk

Cairn with fallen post

Cibola National Forest - Pueblo Ruins

 

Large wall on the second ridge

Gallinas Mountains

Double wall on the second ridge

I don't remember exactly how came to know about this particular site. Most likely I was reading about some other site and there was some brief mention which sparked my curiosity, which usually leads to me trying to figure where the site actually is using Google Earth and further research. I had placed a lot of pins near Indian Tank ( a kind of giveaway just like Ruins Windmill over on the far eastern part of the Cibola). Then, I kind of put it on the back burner. My interest was rekindled after watching a talk given by an archaeologist from the Arizona State Museum who theorizes that the larger public architecture ruins in this area ( known as the Lion Mountain Community, it's not really a big secret as you might have guessed) have many characteristics in common with Chacoan great houses.  Many of my speculative pins on Google Earth were confirmed and I began to feel a bit of urgency about visiting the site.

The Lion Mountain Community site is about four miles west of the better known pueblo ruin at Gallinas Spring which we had visited back in 2020. I remembered the road out there came up pretty quickly on the left once I had turned onto NM 169, but as I approached the first turn off I saw a blue street sign that said "Montoya Ranch Rd." which I did not remember, so I thought I was mistaken. I should have trusted my instincts. Instead I wasted 15 or more minutes looking for the turn-off for  FR 10. Oddly enough, several of the other forest roads that connect to NM 169 have signs right on the highway,  whereas FR 10 (one of the more well used roads in this part of the Cibola NF) does not. I finally made up my mind that the Montosa Ranch Road is FR 10, which was confirmed upon turning and seeing a small sign that indicated  as much attached to one of the gateposts.

  FR 10 is a reasonably wide, maintained road for the first 10 miles or so. Just past a major fork where the left branch heads towards private property and FR 10 crosses a dry creek bed and ascends a ridge , the driving conditions change significantly. The road bed narrows to a single lane, while its surface changes from dirt and gravel to cobble sized rocks. I had been cruising along, probably averaging  over 30 miles per hour,  but now I was lucky to hit a top speed of 15.  Piñon and juniper thickly lined the winding roadway on the ridge, obscuring long range views. At one point though, when the route skirted the very edge of the ridge, lovely views of the hills and valleys of this Gallinas range opened up for few moments to the northeast. The sandy ravines that we crossed had ponderosa pines that were quite stout, in fact they were larger than might be expected given that these lower elevation mountains are without permanent streams or even very many perennial springs. I passed the road that took us down to Gallinas Canyon (and the ruin) five years ago. It was in horrendous shape then, and now it had heavy locked gate and Road Closed sign. In fact, on the return drive, I noticed that FR 10 had been re-routed through this section most likely due to flood damage.

Not counting the time wasted finding FR 10, the drive of approximately 18 miles to Indian Tank took about one hour, which should give any of you out there who are thinking of visiting whether or not it will be worth your while.

 I parked near the tank, which had a decent amount of water from several good November rains. I quickly assessed the two ridges (where a good number or the larger ruins are located, although there are many sites for several square miles in the vicinity of Indian Tank) in front of me. My plan was to visit both and I opted for the one on  my right first and began hoofing upwards at a good pace as I really wasn't going to have a lot of time if I wanted to make it to the cabin at Horse Mountain before dark (I had driven up from Las Cruces that morning, and it was now already the lunch hour). Shortly, I came upon one and then another small ruin made of unshaped locally derived rock. Room blocks were vaguely discernible. There were many, but very small pottery fragments (much of it varied corrugated types) and lithic fragments visible in the sandy areas that were free of grass.  I continued up the slope threading through the pines.

Smaller ruin

 Second smaller ruin

 On top, it wasn't long till I was at  one of the so-called great house ruin areas. The only wall work rubble that I could see was on one side backing up to a length of bedrock outcroppings. There were great views off to the west from this point which I did not, but should have photoed.  The extensive area of red dirt and bedrock in front of the wall was mostly devoid of grass (perhaps given that there was only a very thin veneer of soil left).  Once again the  pottery fragments were very small, dull colored corrugated pieces. I tried to imagine the outline of a curved wall before me that would give this site the D-shape of a great house, but, although there were sunken stones visible in places, it was definitely not obvious. I moved on, crossing the gully that runs between the two ridges, finding a few stray painted sherds along the way.

Painted sherd

Painted sherd

The three fragments above look like they could come from the same pot but they were found in widely spaced locales.

Climbing up the hill, I passed some massive stone piles, but couldn't make up my mind whether they were human-generated or natural. On top I found the long semi-circular wall ( part of it is double wall) that is visible on Google Earth. There were very few readily visible  surface artifacts again. I found a few more wall remnants, and decided I had done what I had I come to do, and began to head down. Now there's whole lot more to the story of this trip, but I will leave that for another blog.

Pueblo Ruins - another site, New Mexico State Trust Lands

 

Mariano Mesa

Corrugated sherds

Sherd and stone tool

Rubble mound

 I visited this site, which is close to two others in far northern Catron County that I've written about in this blog, in early March on the first half of my Spring break. We had three blessed days of sun, 60 degree temperatures, and most importantly;  relatively mild wind conditions.  It took over an hour to get there from the cabin on Horse Mountain, and then I was given a 40 minute delay in getting started, because as soon as I emerged from the truck at my parking spot, a loud hissing could be heard coming from my driver's side rear tire: a flat. I was a little put out as it seemed my little factory lug-wrench no longer seemed to fit my lug nuts. Somehow I made it work for five, but the sixth was very stubborn. I was getting a bit exasperated when a Catron County sheriff's deputy (Officer Taylor) happened upon the scene asking if I needed help. I was telling him I couldn't get the last lug nut off, after which I gave it one more desperate kick and small miracle; it loosened it. I told him he was good luck and he proceeded to help me out changing the tire. Very kind of him indeed. One last wrinkle. After letting the car back down I realized that the jack was stuck. I ended up having to back up to knock it loose. Before he left Deputy Taylor and I agreed that it's always something that will come along to complicate things. As many flat tires as I have changed, it seems a rare thing indeed that the entire procedure comes off completely routine.

 Well, now I could finally begin my little hike. Through the little fence and I was off pounding through the grass. I was going at pretty good clip and probably would have over shot my destination before veering to my left as planned if I hadn't  casually checked my On-X app. As it was I was there in a much shorter time than I had anticipated. After climbing  up a small hill and finding the trash from a vintage campsite, I poked through the junipers and was upon the site itself.

 As with the other sites, there were two distinct sets of room blocks. Grass grew thick on the rubble mounds, but around the perimeter there were patches of bare dirt and ant mounts where pottery sherds and lithic flakes could be found. I circled around the ruins at least twice, then I checked out the sand wash at their base and wondered did this "creek" hold water in ancient times? Perhaps, perhaps not. I knew there was a spring less that a mile south (from maps and Google Earth) of the ruins, but given my time delays, there wasn't going to be time now to visit it.

 As always, I want to linger at places like these. Soaking something in that I'm not sure exactly what it is. I guess I was as satisfied as I ever get when I decided to hoof it back to the truck.