We had never heard of Bandelier National Monument till we saw an article about it in a local newspaper in Santa Fe. The article talked about cliff dwellings and that was all it took to get us headed in that direction.
Bandelier is a few miles outside of Los Alamos, Arizona.
As we approached the area of the monument, we looked down at a huge canyon where Bandelier is located. From up above, nothing was obvious except a heavily wooded area.
We drove the winding road down into the valley full of lush green trees where we found the adobe brick visitor center.
There was a nice gift shop, museum and café with a courtyard for having lunch outdoors. It was very well done to blend in with the culture of the area. We had lunch and then started back up the canyon path.
First we came to the remains of a very large kiva where the natives held their religious ceremonies.
There was also a large area with the foundations of dwellings with many very small rooms.
We then looked across the narrow canyon where one side (but not on the other side) was covered with what one would almost describe as “catacombs.”
There were lots and lots of openings that at one point in time had been dwellings for a very large group of people. There were ladders where you could climb up into some of them. There were also areas in the cave-like dwellings where there had been a fireplace for cooking and for warmth.
In front of some of the cliff dwellings there were more foundations of small rooms, indicating that there were homes built of the adobe bricks and connected to the ones in the cliffs.
Some of the cliff dwellings still had timber poles extending from hand chiseled holes in the adobe. These had provided “porch roofs” for shade and shelter.
On many others the timbers are missing, but you can see the holes where they were. You can also see how many stories high the dwellings were.
Others had large openings (possibly happening naturally) that had been bricked in by the residents to make a smaller door opening. Some small openings were obviously intended for ventilation and smoke evacuation.
I don’t make a very good Indian-Cliff-Dweller, do I? Those rock caves looked really cold inside. I didn’t see any Sleep Number mattresses on the floor, either!
These natives apparently had time to do more than hunt and fish. We found a large number of petroglyphs and pictoglyphs along the canyon near the dwellings. Some of them are hard to figure out. This petroglyph has a bird on the lower left. I don’t know what the rest of it is supposed to be.
This pictoglyph is fairly self-explanatory. I watched out for live ones as well.
This pictoglyph and the next one are some of the most colorful ones I have seen.
Pictoglyphs are painted on the rock like these four are. This one looks like someone was practicing the pattern for making a blanket.
These are petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are carved into the rock.
“My Big-Mouthed Pony”
I hope this petroglyph on the right is just a picture of someone with an under-bite….
Or did someone actually see a little green man????
There were signs directing us further down the canyon to a very large cliff dwelling. You were allowed to climb up into it. It was so large that originally it had 22 rooms inside it.
The path was about a half mile along a creek. It was a pretty little hike through this relaxing scenery. Through the trees, we could get glimpses of even more cliff dwellings along the canyon wall.
Finally we reached the bottom of the ladders that led up to dwelling. It held some of the longest ladders that I have seen not on a fire truck. The 140 feet vertical ascent meant that me and my cranky knee would stay at the bottom while Don climbed to the top. Behind him is the first ladder of the climb.
This is the second section of the climb…
Finally, the last ladder to climb.
However to Don’s credit, he out-climbed a couple of 20-somethings, who when arriving back at the bottom, looked at me and said, “Just don’t do that!”
Of course, when Don reached the top, he claimed that the camera wasn’t working and he had to sit down for 10 minutes or so to “Let the camera rest!” Oh, yeah, RIGHT!!
It is hard to show the massive size of this cave. Look at the ladder in the middle of the kiva that was there. This is a very long ladder that goes down into the kiva 10 feet or more.
And again, there had been some 22 small rooms up there as well.
After the “camera rest,” I welcomed him back down…
…and from down below, we could see a few others making the trek to the top.
On our way back to the car, we voiced questions to one another that had no answers…
Who were these people? When were they here? How many of them were there? (Obviously a very large village based on the huge area in this canyon!) What caused them to leave? Where did they go?
If you have any answers, let me know. I’m still wondering.
The next blog posting will be of my family reunion in Kansas. I'm sure this excites you as much as it does Don.
I just hope the excitement does not include any tornado activity while we are there. I prefer to hear about that kind of thing while several states away rather than personally go through it.
Thanks to living 40+ years of my life in Kansas, I have already paid my dues in that area (read, 'basement storm shelters with sirens screaming half the night!') Thank you very much!
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