Crow Canyon Petroglyphs

Crow Canyon Petroglyphs is a 3,200-acre archaeological district located approximately 30 miles southeast of Farmington, New Mexico, spanning Rio Arriba and San Juan counties. Managed by the BLM Farmington Field Office, the site contains one of the most extensive collections of 16th–18th-century Navajo petroglyphs in the Southwest, with 44 rock art panels featuring hundreds of images depicting ceremonial scenes and spiritual symbols. The district also includes Ancestral Puebloan rock art and a pueblito (small defensive structure built c. 1723). The site is protected as a National Register of Historic Places listing (1974) and protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, with penalties up to five years imprisonment and $250,000 fines. Petroglyphs must not be touched or removed; skin oils cause permanent damage to these sacred cultural resources.