Albuquerque, petroglyphs and more

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We had a good night sleep and were ready to head to Albuquerque Sat. morning. We went to an eco-building conference that morning. It took a long time to get into the Albuquerque fair grounds because a large McCain rally was just getting out. (Obama also spoke in Albuquerque that day; NM is very much a state in play.)

After the conference, we had the afternoon free, so we went to Petroglyph National Monument. It’s just a couple miles from downtown Albuquerque and was fabulous. The park has over 20,000 Indian petroglyphs scratched on to the rocks of the escarpment. We went on a short 2 mile hike and saw at least 100 petroglyphs (here's a slideshow), including images of birds, people, snakes, turtles, antelope, spirals, coyotes, and more. We also saw an incredible great horned owl, our good luck bird.

The petroglyphs were amazing.

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(At the visitor center, we saw amazing pictures of another archaeological site: Bandelier National Monument, north of Santa Fe. Another definite for next time.)

After hiking, we headed to out hotel. After a short rest, we went out and explored the plaza and had a fabulous dinner at Chef du Jour.