Indian Ruins

 There were very ancient American Indian ruins in the Petrified Forest. The above pic is of a kiva, which was a ceremonial chamber used by only the men, women were not allowed in them. Most across the southwest states were round but the one here was square. These were made of just rock but there was one that we didn't see that was made of petrified rocks.

 Beside of the ruin was a small canyon full of huge boulders. Many of them were covered with petroglyphs or rock pictures. Some of these were the easiest to make out what they were of as any I have seen. The writings are done on the rocks that had a dark brown covering that was easy to scratch off but they have stayed like this for several hundred years.

 Many places in the park were these signs that described what had happened at different area. This one tells of the petroglyphs.

The Puerco River runs very near the ruins shown above. I took this pic as we were crossing the river on a bridge. Not much water in it here. If I were to go west about a hundred miles or maybe less I would find the Puerco River in New Mexico. Interesting to see that this little river, that many places is completely dry, goes west to the Petrified Forest. There was more in other areas, but not many of the rivers in the southwest states compare to those in the east and northern states.