The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site with more than 21,000 individual glyphs is a concentration of petroglyph and this makes it one of the largest and most interesting sites of it′s kind in the Southwest.

This is a Bureau of Land Management site so federal passes are accepted. Day use fee is $5.00 per vehicle.

The petroglyph include images of animals, birds, fish, humans, insects and plants, as well as numerous abstract and geometric designs scattered over 50 acres of New Mexico′s northern Chihuahuan Desert. Many of the petroglyph at this site can be viewed easily by walking a trail of less than one mile on a small ridge through a rock strewn path.

This site is one of the few locations in the southwest area that has been set aside solely for the rock art and which gives visitors direct access to petroglyph. Also, a trail which begins east of the picnic area leads to the remains of a small pueblo ruin, and this ruins is believed to be connected with the petroglyph area.

Located in the Tularosa Valley, midway between Tularosa and Carrizozo, on the east side of US 54 about 17.5 miles north of Tularosa, New Mexico or 28 miles south of Carrizozo, where you will see the Three Rivers Trading Post. The road besides the trading post is Three Rivers Road (also B030 and Forest Road 579).

Turn east on to Three Rivers Road and drive 4.5 miles to the entrance of the petroglyph site. Turn left into the site parking lot, campground and trailhead.

This site is open year round, entrance gate opens at 8:00 am and closes at 7:00 pm from April to October, and closes at 5:00 pm from October to April.

33.346944, -106.011667

5000 feet

Basin and Range Region

Escarpment and Mountains Ecoregion Ecoregion

The petroglyph at Three Rivers, which date back to about 900 to 1400 CE, were created by the Jornada Mogollon people who used stone tools to remove the dark patina from the surface of the rock. A small pueblo ruin is nearby and Sierra Blanca (11,981 feet) towers above to the east.

The Mogollon people were descendants of the Uto-Aztecan speaking people who crossed the Bering land bridge onto the North American continent during the second migration.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site Campground

Three Rivers Campground (33.401534, -105.883787)

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