The Petroglyph National Monument is a day-use park, which means the visitor center and each of the trailhead parking lots close at 4:30 pm. Boca Negra Canyon is open daily from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with last entry at 4:00 pm daily.

Visitors are allowed to hike the trails at the Volcanoes Day Use Area, Rinconada Canyon, and Piedras Marcadas Canyons from sunrise to sunset by simply parking outside of the gated parking lots.

Petroglyph National Monument protects one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, featuring designs and symbols carved onto volcanic rocks by Native Americans and Spanish settlers from about 1300 CE to 1650 CE. These images are a valuable record of cultural expression and hold profound spiritual significance for contemporary Native Americans and for the descendants of the early Spanish settlers.

This archeological site has an estimate 24,000 carved images including those from the ancient Anasazi indigenous people as well as some from the early Spanish settlers. Similar to most other ancient symbols, many are recognized as animals, people and other objects but their meaning is still possibly only known by the artist.

Access is from exit 154 off IH 40 and take Unser Blvd NW to the north.

This park is located on the west side of Albuquerque, New Mexico along a volcanic basalt escarpment that dominates the city′s west horizon. This escarpment includes a chain of dormant fissure volcanoes, which are located on the west side of the monument park.

Basin and Range Region

Colorado Plateau Ecoregion

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Located off Unser Boulevard, ¼ mile north of Montaño Road, this site provides quick and easy access to three self-guided trails: Mesa Point; Macaw; and Cliff Base, all three at which you can see petroglyph. Estimated walking time is 1 hour, the Boca Negra Canyon site has about 100 petroglyph available for viewing in Petroglyph National Monument.

Boca Negra Canyon is owned and managed by the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division which charges a parking fee of $1 on weekdays and $2 on weekends. Valid Federal Lands passes are honored and waive the parking fee.

Restroom facilities, shade, and a drinking fountain are provided for your convenience.

The first Trailhead is located at the parking lot next to a private home located at 9419 Jill Patricia Street NW.

The second trailhead is at a parking lot located at 9009 Tia Christina Drive NW.

The Piedras Marcadas Canyon site has about 300 petroglyph available for viewing in Petroglyph National Monument.

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The Rinconada Canyon trailhead is located at the 7601 St Josephs Avenue NW where there is a parking lot, vault toilets, shade shelters, and trail access.

The Rinconada Canyon site has about 400 petroglyph available for viewing in Petroglyph National Monument.

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The Volcano trails are Day Use trails only and this unit does not have any petroglyph.

The monument has an estimated 17,000 Indian petroglyph dating principally from 1350 – 1680 A.D. Hundreds of archaeological sites span the centuries from Paleo-Indian to the present.

Images of shieldbearers, flute-players, horned serpents, star-beings, birds and numerous masks grace the faces of boulders, hardened lava-flow coughed up by long-dormant volcanoes. Even though the glyphs are centuries old, Indians from all the Pueblos recognize the site as sacred, still visiting shrines within the monument to perform seasonal ceremonies.