Encierro Canyon Petroglyphs I

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6147 - 6166 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: 36.60324, -107.51489
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs

The Encierro Canyon Petroglyphs Site 1, in the Carrizo Canyon area southeast of Bloomfield, New Mexico, includes some of the best petroglyphs found in what is often referred to as Dinétah or 'land of the people' in the Navajo language. There are two groups of petroglyphs at the site with one group being down near ground level and another up on a bench in the cliff.

For turn-by-turn directions enter 36.60324, -107.51489 into your driving app. Via various county roads the location is 21.3 miles from US-64.

The above photos were all taken of petroglyphs that are down near ground level where there are 5 or 6 panels of images.

Up on the narrow bench or ledge there are 3 or 4 more panels with some very nice images. We took all of our photos from below using a zoom lens.

The largest panel includes a little bit of everything from a large Yei figure to several cranes, a line of game animals, and various anthropomorphic figures.

To the right of the main panel is a wedge of rock with mostly animal images.

Further to the right is a large Yei figure, a mountain lion, and what is probably a bean or pepper plant.

Several more figures and a footprint that are off to the left.

Here it looks like there are 3 birds with wings touching and several anthros.

Right where we parked along County Road 492 is at the edge of some private property. All of the petroglyphs are on BLM land. We didn't notice any good places to camp anywhere in this area.

After the fact we noticed a few images that we would have liked to have had closeups of so the next time that we come by here we will probably climb up to the petroglyphs and take more photos or use a crop frame camera that will give us a 1.6x enlargement.

If you would like to see the petroglyphs for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.