Pregnant Basketmaker

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 250 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5997 - 6005 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: 36.76369, -107.64955
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs

The Pregnant Basketmaker Site is located in Escarbada Canyon a little northwest of Navajo City, New Mexico. The site, which dates between A.D. 400 to A.D. 950, or the Basketmaker III - Pueblo I period, includes a number of anthropomorphic figures, one of which is a pregnant figure with the baby in position for delivery.

For turn-by-turn directions to the site enter 36.76369, -107.64955 into your driving app. From US-64, at Navajo City, you will be directed north on NM-539 toward Navajo Dam for 2.2 miles where you will turn left into Gobernador Canyon. After another 1.2 miles or so you will go left again into Escarbada Canyon. When you get to where going straight will lead you out of the canyon turn to the left once more.

The Pregnant Basketmaker Site sits right along side of the road making it very easy to find.

The petroglyphs are only about 120 feet from the road. Inside the trail register there is a laminated sheet with some interesting information.

The sheet mentions that there are 3 human like figures but as you can see the count is more like a dozen. Two of the figures on the right have long lines of footprints below them.

On the left side of the panel there are 2 more footprints with 3 anthros and a large number of dots.

In the center of the panel the Pregnant Basketmaker figure and her mate appear to be holding hands.

Below them there are 2 more figures that appear to have young children between them kinda like a family photo.

Further down the cliff there is another place with a few faint petroglyphs including this anthro and some concentric circles.

Closer to the road a little further down is a solitary rock with more faint images.

One of the images on this rock looks like a person holding a shield.

Not more than an hundred yards of so past the last petroglyphs there is a locked gate across the road with a no trespassing sign. It does look like there are some petroglyphs on the south side of the wash near a cave that we didn't take the time to investigate.

If you would like to see the Pregnant Basketmaker Site and the nearby petroglyphs in Gobernador Wash for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.