Protecting a sacred space: Petroglyph National Monument closes part of trail to fend off vandals

Apr. 28—Nancy Hendricks worked her way to the top of Mesa Point Trail in Boca Negra Canyon at Petroglyph National Monument on a warm, breezy afternoon last week.

"Hold on to your cap," she called to a companion as a wicked gust of wind whipped along the steep, 1,056-feet ascent.

Hendricks is the National Park Service superintendent of the 7,200-plus acres monument site on Albuquerque's West Mesa.

Scaling the Mesa Point Trail is routine for her. She had last been up it only a few days before, but when she reached the mesa top she was taken by surprise.

"Well, this is new," she said.

Hendricks stared at numerous large rocks that had been moved and rearranged into the shape of a cross.

Losing the story

Petroglyph National Monument is a 17-mile-long volcanic basalt escarpment.

Managed jointly by the National Park Service and the city of Albuquerque, the monument is charged with protecting a variety of natural and cultural resources, including five volcanic cones, 350 archaeological sites, and 24,000 petroglyphs — images carved into rock, mostly by ancestral Pueblo peoples, hundreds of years ago.

"This whole escarpment is on the National Register of Historic Places," Hendricks said.

She said the monument is sacred to 29 American Indian groups, including all 19 New Mexico pueblos, the Navajo, Hopi, Comanches, several Apache tribes and others.

This week, the monument closed the upper 165-foot segment of the Mesa Point Trail in an effort to prevent the kind of cultural and archaeological violation that occurred when those rocks were manhandled into the shape of a cross.

The closure will continue for the foreseeable future to deal with what Hendricks said has become a common problem.

She said moving rocks causes environmental damage by eradicating habitat, shade and protection and increasing erosion. It also eliminates archaeological evidence.

"Once rocks are moved, the story is lost," she said. "The story is in the shape and the position of the rocks."

The decision to close the upper portion of the trail was made after consulting with the Native entities that revere the place, Hendricks said.

"The preservation of the cultural landscape of the monument is the primary concern of the National Park Service," she said. "It's just unfortunate that some visitors do not value the resources here."

Always something new

The Mesa Point Trail was built in the 1970s when this site was Indian Petroglyph State Park. It was designated a national monument in June 1990.

Not everything new that Hendricks sees on Mesa Point is a bad thing. She said every time she walks the trail, she sees something she has not seen before. Often it is a petroglyph she is noticing for the first time.

"The petroglyphs here were created 500 to 700 years ago," she said. "Some in the monument could be 1,000 years old. The older the petroglyph, the harder it is to see because the rock gets darker with age."

Recently, moving rocks has become a more prevalent problem. People stack them to create cairns, they line trails with rocks, use rocks to build forts or to create shapes such as that cross on the mesa top.

But the assault on the monument is not limited to that.

"Almost everywhere you look there are (man-made) scratches on the petroglyphs," Hendricks said. "It takes scratches hundreds of years, maybe thousands, to go away naturally."

Another major problem is people who spoil the monument's fragile landscape by leaving designated trails and tramping where they are not supposed to go.

"There are about 30 legal access points into the park and 25 miles of designated trails," Hendricks said. "But people still come through unofficial entries and have created about 140 miles of unofficial trails. I tell people, 'If you have to climb through a fence, it's probably not an official entry.'"

The monument is so vast, spread out and isolated that it would be difficult to police, even if the Park Service had a lot of people to do that, which it doesn't.

There are two law enforcement rangers at the monument and four park education rangers, who are sometimes available to walk the trails.

Hendricks said the monument has a team of 67 volunteers, 50 of which engage in trail-watch duties, and "some great neighbors" who keep their eyes peeled.

City open-space police, who have plenty of ground to cover outside the monument's boundaries, respond to specific concerns.

That's not enough manpower to be as effective in policing as the monument would like, so the decision was made to close off the upper portion of Mesa Point.

Hendricks said visitors will still be able to see petroglyphs and experience views of the Sandia Mountains and the city of Albuquerque from the section of Mesa Point that is not closed to the public. And the McCaw and Cliff Base trails in Boca Negra Canyon will remain open.

"It takes all of us to protect this place," Hendricks said. "It is important to the city of Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico, Indigenous people and people around the world."

Another door opens

Even as Petroglyph National Monument closes a piece of Mesa Point Trail, it is making the South Point Day Use Area in the southernmost extent of the escarpment more accessible to the public beginning Friday.

The South Point Day Use Area and trailhead leads into the Mesa Prieta section of the monument, which has about 200 petroglyphs, walking and hiking trails and historic roads. People have been able to get to the trails in the past, but now South Point has a parking lot, open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and vault toilets.

To celebrate the improvements, monument rangers will be providing guided hikes, activities and information at South Point on Friday and Saturday.

Work will continue at South Point over the next few months to add signage, bike racks, trash cans, a shade ramada and benches. However, there will be no water on the site.

And as the monument implements its Visitor Use Management Plan over the next few years, designated trails will increase to 38 miles.

"Don't stack or scratch the rocks. Stay on the trails, enter at official entry points and come out and enjoy the monument," Hendricks said. "And bring water."