With Native American ruins and waterfalls, Bandelier has both nature and history.
Bandelier National Monument, in Northern New Mexico, is an easy drive from nearby Santa Fe. Bandelier is home to not only Ancestral Puebloan ruins, but also plenty of wilderness hiking trails.
Humans have been in this area for millennia. However, permanent settlement did not occur until about 1150 CE. The Ancestral Puebloans built homes here in Frijoles Canyon. Multiple constructions date from 1150 through around 1600. The canyon had a year round water source, leading many people to set up homes here.
Frijoles Canyon. It was snowing here on my first visit.
Bandelier is full of Ancestral Puebloan ruins. On my first visit to the park, back in December 2017 (hence the snow), I visited one of the partially excavated ruins outside of the main park boundaries, Tsankawi. Built on top of a mesa with views of the surrounding area, Tsankawi may have been constructed in the 15th century. However, it was abandoned sometime in the 16th century due to drought.
The pueblo was built on top of this mesa. To get to the top today, requires climbing on a couple of ladders. It was only slightly terrifying. I don’t like ladders.
The scattered ruins of the pueblo, which would have been two to three stories high.
Pottery scatters the ground. Don’t worry, I put it back and it was already disturbed.
They complexly carved this room out of the stone and roofed it over.
Back to Frijoles Canyon. I visited two pueblo ruins during my second trip in June 2019. An easy paved trail leads you from the visitor center to Tyuonyi and Long House.
Tyuonyi was a large circular pueblo, two to three stories high, with over 100 rooms (quite small though. Next to Tyuonyi is Long House, which was built into the cliff side. Ceiling beams joined Long House rooms into the cliff. Even more back rooms were carved into the rock, creating an insulated area for storage, or to escape the heat of the summer sun.
The Big Kiva at Tyuonyi. Kivas were, and still are, used for religious ceremonies and meetings. The sides would have been taller. People would enter the kiva by a ladder from the roof. (This one is actually kind of small compared to some at Chaco Canyon.)
It’s hard to see the size of Tyuonyi from the ground.
It was pretty extensive.
A much better view of Tyuonyi. Rooms in the pueblo were only accessible from the roof.
Little rooms were carved into the cliff side, maybe for storage or for a home. They were very small.
Reconstruction of how the cliff side dwellings would have looked before they fell into ruins.
Two or three stories in parts. The roof beams were placed into human-made notches along the cliff.
All those little caverns interconnect into a bunch of little rooms.
Very, very small rooms.
A rather unique kiva built into a cavity in the cliff.
Now for Long House. You can see three story rooms here carved into the cliff. Some contained natural, or human-expanded, cavities, as well. The small circular holes would have held roof and wall beams from the rooms in front of the cliff.
You can really see the outline of the pueblo in this photo. Parts of the pueblo were three stories high. The pueblo curved around the corner here. They smoothed the rock surfaces before constructing their homes.
Bandelier also has around 70 miles of trails throughout the park. We chose a more moderate one, the Falls Trail, which ends with a waterfall (not surprising).
The trail follows the Frijoles River, which is heading toward to the Rio Grande.
Mini-waterfall!
Crossing the Frijoles River. It’s not a wide river.
The Rio Grande is in the distance. It’s just green and impossible to make out.
The waterfall is hiding in the shadows.
There it is. Worth the hike.
Bandelier National Monument is a great place to visit if you are into archaeology or history, and for hikers as well. It’s really easy to reach from Santa Fe. If visiting in the summer, arrive before 9 am so you can park in the canyon, otherwise you have to take the shuttle from nearby White Rock.
Check out my next update where I find a bunch of petroglyphs in Albuquerque, New Mexico!
