What Gate?

Olivia and I arrived back in Albuquerque, NM around 4:50pm the night before Matt flew in to the Albuquerque Airport. We went back to the Petroglyph National Monument. The rocks were really stunning next to the dramatic clouds and I REALLY wanted to make a drawing. Unfortunately for us the park closes at 5pm. There's a nice spot up the hill (with the great rocks) that isn't really monitored. There's a gate for the parking lot so I decided we would park on the road and walk over to the picnic table to do our drawing. I figured maybe someone would come tell us we needed to leave but maybe they wouldn't mind if I finish my drawing first.

This is where Olivia says "What about the gate at the bottom of the road?"

And I say "There's no gate at the bottom of the road."

So the both of us draw on our merry way. Frantically drawing, actually, because I was trying to finish before we got kicked out. Olivia also made a really great drawing. I'll have to photograph it for you. We still really haven't unpacked. Anyway we spent an hour there working. Some teens came up in a car and hung out below us for a while. Olivia said if they started smoking pot she was out of there. I admired her anti-drug stance but told her that pot smokers were not generally dangerous. So after an hour we finished and got back in the car and drove down the road and guess what....

THERE IS A GATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ROAD!!!!

We were locked in the Petroglyph National Monumnet!!! Luckily I'd been driving on dirt roads all over the reservation and built up my off-roading confidence. (Maybe a little too much but that's a story for a different day.) Also luckily, the side of the road seemed to have a dirt driving path. SO...we drove over a bush, down the hill, up the hill, and around the gate to freedom.