We are exhausted and don’t really have much left to write the blog. We did want to post some pictures, though. First, we were driving through the town of Ruidoso and spotted a herd of mule deer grazing on the side of the road.

Less than a half mile down the road from the deer, we spotted elk!

Today, as we drove down the road further past our campground, we encountered a New Mexican traffic jam:

Today we did the hike to see the petroglyphs that are right within our campground. The petroglyphs date back 600 years to a tribal people called the Jornada Mogollon (pronounced Hornahdah Magoyah). There are more than 21,000 petroglyphs in an area of about a mile, and they are a mystery that anthropologists are still trying to figure out. Some were scratched into the oxidized surface of the rocks, others were chiseled. They may have been picture stories, directions to travelers, or offerings to the Gods. But some of them are strikingly clear and must have been painstakingly created. Here are just a few:

The camp hosts told us about a little Spanish chapel that is about 5 miles down the road from the campground, so we went searching for it. This chapel has stations of the cross located outdoors on a path that climbs the mountain in back, culminating with the cross at the top of the mountain. We were too tired from our earlier hike to make the climb, but the chapel itself was a unique surprise and worth the visit!

Looking toward altar from entrance door. ^

Looking from altar toward entrance. ^

We have been in New Mexico for 15 days already! We can’t believe how much we’ve seen in just the small section of the state that we’ve covered so far!