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News • New Mexico • United States • 2012-01-20

Hikes Available at Prehistoric Trackways National Monument

The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument is now offering guided hikes to Discovery Site where 2,500 slabs of trackways were excavated by citizen scientist Jerry MacDonald and now make up the Jerry MacDonald Paleozoic Trackways collection at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

The trackways contain footprints of numerous amphibians, reptiles, and insects (including previously unknown species), plants, and petrified wood dating back 280 million years, which collectively provide new opportunities to understand animal behaviors and environments from a time predating dinosaurs. The site contains the most scientifically significant Early Permian track sites in the world.

The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument was established in 2009 to conserve, protect, and enhance the unique and nationally important paleontological, scientific, educational, scenic, and recreational resources and values of the Robledo Mountains in southern New Mexico. The Monument includes a major deposit of Paleozoic Era fossilized footprint megatrackways within approximately 5,280 acres.

The hikes, which will be offered on certain dates this spring, are about two miles long, and are guided by a park ranger. The ranger will meet hikers at the wayside exhibits off of Permian Track Road. The following hikes are for dates from Jan. - April. Jan. 28, Feb. 4, and Feb. 18 at 10 a.m. March 17, March 31 and April 14 at 9 a.m. and April 28 at 8 a.m.

For more directions and information about the Prehistoric Trackways hikes, call McKinney Briske 575-525-4334, or Mike Downs 575-525-4351 or go to http://www.las-cruces-media.org/pdf/PTNM-guided-hike.pdf.

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