Piedras Marcadas Canyon is a volcanic landscape valued by Pueblo people and other visitors for the warmth of the sun, the whispers of the wind, volcanic boulders, native plants, and desert animals. Ancestral Puebloans depended on natural resources for daily survival, and the relationship between the earth and humans is inferred through imagery. Although many similarities exist between images found on kiva murals and painted pottery, the original meaning of each petroglyph is known only by its creator, and many of the images are spiritual messages. The canyon's name, piedras marcadas, meaning marked rocks, was given by early Spanish settlers who came to inhabit what is now western Albuquerque during the mid-1600s. Most of the petroglyphs were made by Ancestral Pueblo people 400-700 years ago by using stone tools to peck and chip away the basalt boulders' dark desert varnish and expose the lighter gray basalt beneath. These images have profound cultural and spiritual significance for today's Pueblo people and many Southwest Indians, and Spanish explorers also left their influence in historic engravings such as crosses and cattle and sheep brands along the escarpment.