May 15 - Petroglyphs & Pygmy Goats

 May 15

After the blessing of approximately two teaspoons of rain in our patch of desert the night before, the skies were clear and beautiful on Saturday morning.  We packed up and headed further north.  Since there was plenty of RV parking at the adjoining campground, we were able to hit up the Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site on the way.

Looking for even one of the promised Three Rivers - no luck!

There are over 21,000 (!!) prehistoric petroglyphs here, carved into rocky outcroppings along a low ridge.  Even the rock formations themselves are a pretty cool sight.  

After going up the ridge a bit, the designs are everywhere you turn.  To see them all you’d have to pick you way through the formations for a long time.  It was really fun to climb around and try to find more hidden designs. 

At first glance, the petroglyphs appear to be painted or drawn on with a white material, but they were actually created by scratching away the dark patina of the rocks to expose the lighter surfaces beneath.  

 

They are thought to have been left here between 900-1400 AD by the Jornada Mogollon peoples.

Could they have dreamt that someday 1951-2021 Isaacs peoples would be capturing tiny versions of their drawings in glowing palm-sized rectangles?

There’s another small flat trail that leads to excavated home sites of the ~1000 year old pueblo ruins.  The partial walls are mostly reconstructions.  

We drove on for about 3.5 hours to our next Boondockers site in Velarde, NM.  It’s an operating winery that makes non-grape fruit wines only, as well as the home of the family members who run it.  The entire thing is inside a structure that was once a prohibition-era nightclub and brothel!  

Eric, the owner, gave us a tour of the winemaking facilities just off the living room.  

We also met his menagerie, including...

These chickens and a rooster that crows WELL before sunrise.

Donald the Duck, who has to be separated from the other fowl for being a huge bully

A mama cat named Mama and her newborn kittens

Henry, Mama’s Large Adult Son

And pygmy goats!!  Three bouncing little boys, named Larry, Moe, & Curly:

 I can say with scientific authority that they are absolutely the cutest animals that have ever existed.

There are also several ducks, chickens, bunnies, and two super-sweet dogs that aren’t pictured here.  I was happier than a pig in (goat) s***!

Later Eric’s wonderful sister, Marta, poured us a wine tasting.  Mom & Dad aren’t particularly drinkers, but these were all semi-sweet to sweet and a couple had virtually no alcohol taste at all.   Mom liked the Strawberry best, Dad the Apricot, and although I like very dry wines, the Choke-Cherry has a cranberry-like bitterness that I really enjoyed.  We ended up purchasing a bottle of each.

We also got to see Eric’s adobe brick making process for the security wall he’s building around the goat enclosure.

Before retiring we chatted with our Boondocker neighbors as the sun went down.  We talked (well, I followed Henry the cat around because I’m really missing my kitties) past 8 pm, so we had PB&Js and Cheetos and mandarin oranges (meeting our recommended daily allowance of Neon Orange foodstuffs) for dinner and hit the hay.  Next - more goats and Taos, which is almost an anagram of ‘goats’!  Makes ya think...