Leslie and David's Wanderings: 29 March 2019 Bandelier National Monument

Given the forcast for great temperatures but high winds, we decided a canyon hike would be appropriate to help block the wind. We drove the hour to the main Visitor Center for Bandelier NM. In the summer, the main Visitor Center is not accessible, you must stop at the White Visitor Center and take a bus into the canyon. We watched the park film and collected our 26^thPark Passport stamp.

The area around Bandelier NM was formed by the super Valdez super volcano. Eruptions from the super volcano 1 million years ago buried the area in up to 1000 feet of volcanic tuff, some of which was hard and some soft. Water and wind erosion formed the Frijoles Canyon. The soft tuff canyon walls made it easy to carve dwellings into the stone and also made building walls easy. The continuous running stream at the bottom of the canyon made for easy water access. There was plenty of game and agriculture in the canyon that played a major part. The canyon was continuously occupied by the year 1300. The Pueblo Indians built the Tyuonyi Pueblo of about 400 rooms housing up to 100 people. In the main plaza, there were three Kivas for community use. Some of the structures were up to three stories tall with the entrance in the roof. Ladders led from one level to another. Tree ring analysis of the wooden beams used to hold up the roofs and floor showed the pueblo was built around 1360.

We hiked the main loop trail (approximately 1.2 miles) which takes you past a very large kiva, then to the Tyuonyi Pueblo and then to the dwellings carved or built up against the cliff walls. There was also quite a few petroglyphs in the cliff walls. At the halfway point, we took the trail to the Alcove room (and additional half mile each way). We crossed the stream multiple times on the way to the room. The canyon experienced two bad forest fires in 2011 and 2013 followed by multiple flash floods which washed many dead trees down the canyon causing these huge stacks of logs and debris that had to be clear from the trail. The stream was running pretty fast due to snow melt. When we got to the Alcove room, we could see that there were multiple wooden ladders that had to be climbed along with some stone steps climbing 14 stories up the canyon wall. Leslie took one look and decided her knee would not take it. David proceeded on up the ladders to the alcove. There really was not much there. A kiva that was built in 1908 and a couple of small rooms cut into the cliff face. So the real thrill was climbing up and down the tall ladders.

Following our hike we went to the Second Street Brewery in Santa Fe for some beer and dinner. I can’t believe we had not found this place in our previous trips to Santa Fe, but we will definietly be back!