Tucked away about 20 miles north of Tularosa on New Mexico Highway 54, the Three Rivers Petroglyphs site, managed by the Bureau of Land Management provide a glimpse into the Jornada Mogollon culture that lived in thatched, semi submerged earth dwellings from approximately 400 AD to 1200 AD when so many thriving cultures seemed to have disappeared…Chaco, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep and many others.  Left behind are the rock tablets that depict a common humanity.  Animals, symbols, handprints and iconic faces can be seen easily on a trail and it’s only a fraction of the 20,000 some thousand that have been identified.

For fans of Michael McGarrity’s Keven Kerney series, this is the land.  And it’s a pretty spectacular place.