Road Trip West 2, New Mexico

Richard Rathe, April 2026 (Flowers, History)

The next day I moved on to eastern New Mexico and a huge area of oil and gas production. At one intersection there were pumpjacks as far as the eye could see!

I ended up at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site and campground maintained by the BLM.

I established my campsite and went for a walk about an hour before sunset. It was a magical time to be out in the desert. Some of the rocks are volcanic in origin. I did not realize it, but I could see the southern tip of these features in the middle distance (see below).

Here I am with the most famous panel at the site that does not leave much to the imagination—a big-horn sheep with multiple arrows sticking into it. Hunting success was a big priority!

The next morning I had a pleasant surprise. As I drove north I could see a large black lake off to the west. It was very odd looking and showed up black on the navigation map.

It turned out to be an old lava flow or Malpaís. And it was in bloom. 🙂

At the end of the day I found another nice BLM campground and cooked a hot meal.