"I wore moccasins on my feet, and I'd make believe I was under a teepee"

We spent the day at Bandelier National Monument, which protects numerous interesting archaeological sites. This is a large kiva, situated in Frijoles Canyon. Kivas were below-ground ceremonial and communal gathering places for the Pueblo peoples. The ruins here date from the 1100s to the 1500s.



A little way down the canyon was this large, baseball diamond-shaped pueblo. The belt of trees behind it marks the path of a creek, which was a permanent water source for the people who lived here.



The walls of the canyon look a bit like sandstone, but they are actually tuff, a layer of volcanic ash from an enormous eruption that deposited a layer of material 1000 feet thick. The stuff is incredibly soft and erodes easily, forming natural caves that the Pueblo people took advantage of. By enlarging some of the caves and building walls in front of them, they made secure and comfortable lodgings.



The park service kindly provided ladders into some of the cave rooms, called "cavetes".






This kiva was carved out of the cliff wall, and was used for ceremonial weaving.



This was called Long House, for obvious reasons. Here you can see, or imagine, what the multi-story pueblo would have looked like when in use. The rows of smaller holes are for the vigas (roof beams).



This is the fun trail to Alcove house. At this point a noisy thunderstorm was building just over the canyon wall, so there was some sense of urgency to get up and back down the 4 ladders (140 feet worth) before we got rained on.



Alcove house, with an above-ground kiva, more cavetes and vigas holes.


We returned to the car via the nature trail along the creek.



We then visited the Tsankawi section of the park, which had a fantastic trail up to an unexcavated pueblo, then along a ridge where there were more cave rooms. What was especially interesting about the hike was that the trail itself was ancient, worn into the soft tuff by original inhabitants of the area. There were fantastic stairways and channels; some nearly waist deep and barely wide enough for us to pass through.



The pueblo was beautifully situated on the top of the plateau, with great views of the mountains and mesas nearby.



The skies were fantastic all day; fortunately, we never got rained on, despite the constant rumble of thunder.


Mmmm.... Southwestern food! I realize this picture doesn't look that yummy, but really, it was terrific. The big plate is carne adovada (red chile marinated pork), black beans, and something called Calabacitas, which is corn, zucchini, onion, and melted cheese... a standard side dish in these parts. The puffy things in the middle are sopapillas, to be eaten with honey, and in the back are a red chile sauced tamale, and a bowl of the spiciest tortilla soup in all of creation.


Click me to see where we went.