Arroyo Hondo Petroglyphs

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.25 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6496 - 6514 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: 36.53443, -105.70684
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs, fishing

The Arroyo Hondo Petroglyphs are located in the Wild and Scenic River Section of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos, New Mexico. Two very nice petroglyphs can be spotted high up on a cliff just upstream of the confluence of the Rio Grande River and the Rio Hondo.

For turn-by-turn directions you can enter either John Dunn Bridge or 36.53443, -105.70684 into your driving app. From NM-522 you will be directed down the Lower Arroyo Hondo Road for 2.5 miles where you can either park at the wide spot just after the Rio Hondo bridge or before crossing the bridge turn left onto the fishing access road or park near the restrooms on this side of the John Dunn Bridge.

The fishing access road stays on the left side of the Rio Hondo and runs for about 900 feet down to the Rio Grande River. Staying on the Lower Rio Hondo Road itself will take you to the John Dunn Bridge in about the same 900 feet where there is a restroom and lots of parking on both sides of the river.

After a few hundred feet the fishing access road passes through a shady copse.

As soon as you come out of the trees you can spot the petroglyphs high up on the side of the cliff. It isn't very practical to climb up to them.

The big image on the left is a large starburst. On the lower left of that is a smaller starburst and on the right a small circle that you have to zoom in on the photo to see.

The big image on the right is a large bird.

Here's a view of both of the large images together.

Looking around on the north side of the gorge you can find a few very faint images but most of what you will see is a whole lot of graffiti.

On both sides of the river there are trails that are mostly used by fisherman. There is one trail that travels downstream for a couple of miles on the east side of the river that leads to the Manby Hot Springs.

A kiosk that overlooks the river mentions that in 1854 a US Army expedition, guided by Kit Carson, crossed the river here in pursuit of some Jicarilla Apaches. That was before there was a bridge so over 400 horses and men had to swim the swollen Rio Grande and climb the steep cliffs on the west side. Today you can drive across on the John Dunn Bridge and up a long series of switchbacks.

We thought that the area around John Dunn Bridge would be a good place to find some petroglyphs but the only good ones we saw are the two we have shown in this post. Arroyo Hondo was used as a route by Native People long before the Spanish Colonist came onto the scene. If there are more petroglyphs than what we found we missed them completely.

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