Living Our Dream: Hiked in Bandelier National Monument

Eight years ago we had attempted to visit Bandelier National Monument but it was closed due to a wild fire which destroyed over 60% of the area north of the visitor's center. A few months after the fire, a flash flood did more damage. Instead, back then, we walked the Tsankawi Trail (look at the October 31, 2011 blog) instead of visiting Bandelier. As we drove to Bandelier, we passed in and out of Pueblos, there are 19 in this area, and each one has at least one casino.

One of the larger casinos

Impressed with the architecture of this casino

Bandelier is located somewhere in the Jemez Mountains ahead

Crossed Rio Grande River again

Starting the ascent into the mountains

Shuttle service into the monument was developed shortly after the 2011 fire and is still in effect today. We parked the car in a small town called White Rock which neighbors Los Alamos (the Manhattan project to developed atomic bomb during World War II), and got to the visitor's center by noon. After watching the movie, we started out on the hike to see the ruins, cliff dwellings, and the petroglyphs that the Ancient Puebloans left behind. One ruin's verbiage stated that over 500 people lived in the multi-story complex before they moved further south to the Cochiti Pueblo, which is near Santa Fe, and these people are the most direct descendants of the Ancient People of the Bandelier NM.

Stone buildings are part of the lodging of park

We hiked into Frijoles Canyon, a loop trail that starts at the Frijoles Creek level, past ruins, and then up steps into the level of the cliff dwellers. Along the canyon walls, then up again into more caves (cavates) then continues to the area known as Long House. This multiple storied ruins and dwellings had petroglyphs carved along the walls.

A very large kiva

Seen from about 100 feet away

Large ruins of a complex that housed over 500 people

Back down to creek level and after a quick snack, continued deeper into the canyon to the Alcove House. We decided to not climb up into the reconstructed kiva, just looked at it from the bottom. Lots of steps, not interested in that climb.

Climbed up to the cliff dwellings level

Looking down on the large complex below

Climbed ladder to go into one of the dwellings, looking out

The passageway between dwellings was quite narrow at times

At the Long House complex - climbing higher

Some were 3, some where 5 stories high

After returning to the car via the shuttle, we drove the Jemez (Hay-mez) scenic byway back to the campground. Very pretty, in and out of Pueblos (small Indian cities), saw the Valle Grande where a giant volcano erupted over a million years ago and it was 500 times larger in eruption than Mt. St. Helens back in 1980, saw the caldera (flat plains left behind after eruption). Very scenic, lots of geothermal areas (hot springs) still in the area. Looked like Yellowstone NP.