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Petroglyphs
Visitors to the Gila National Forest can view examples of the art of the Mogollon culture.
Pictographs that are painted in red and other colors can be found along the Trail to the Past near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and at Lake Roberts.
Petroglyphs which are pecked into rock cliffs are found at the Apache Creek Rock Art Trail and the Tularosa Box, north of Reserve, New Mexico. The rock art you see today is the surviving remnant of a wealth of images created by Native Americans over the past several thousand years.
Unlike the more famous and easily identified Mimbres pottery designs, it is difficult to say for sure which prehistoric cultures are responsible for the rock art. Some of the Lake Roberts designs may have been painted by the Mogollon culture around 1300 A.D. Visitors should refrain from touching, rubbing or chalking pictographs and petroglyphs as these activities are destructive and will hasten their eventual destruction.