El Morro and El Malpais national monuments preserve rugged, demanding landscapes that nevertheless attracted travelers, from ancestral Puebloans to early 20th century homesteaders. Today visitors study the signatures at El Morro, or peer into the lava tubes that worm beneath El Morro's surface. But there's also the backcountry of both that attract visitors who look for beauty, solitude, and perhaps a connection with those who came long before.

There is just one road through Petrified Forest National Park, a road that most visitors stick to as they stop at overlooks, maybe hike to Agate House, and check out the Rainbow Forest Museum. But if you're adventurous, the Painted Desert with its backcountry trails holds surprises if you take the time, and have the skills, to explore this wild side of the park, as Barbara Jensen did.

The distinctive silhouettes of the “Three Sisters” are an Albuquerque landmark, low peaks on the high West Mesa. Part of Petroglyph National Monument, this free day use area is jointly managed by National Park Service and the city. Instead of turning left out of the visitor center parking lot to go find ancient rock carvings, I turn right in search of volcanoes.

My wife and I are staring at a lizard that must be four feet long, holding our breath in astonishment. Light tan in color, this creature is vividly outlined against an overhanging wall of sandstone. Painstakingly chipped out of the rock by some nameless Native American artisan, it has been on display here for at least seven hundred years, or longer than the Giotto frescos in Florence’s Santa Croce church.