Bandelier National Monument

Sunday May 11, 2025                                            Most Recent Posts:
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Bandelier National Monument was established in 1916 only 36 years after anthropologist Adolph F. A. Bandelier came to New Mexico Territory and men from Cochiti Pueblo guided him to their ancestral homes in Frijoles Canyon.  The monument covers 33,655 acres.  Evidence of human activity within the park dates back more than 10,000 years.   There was no road in Frijoles Canyon until the mid 1930’s when the Civilian Conservation Corps built one, along with trails, the visitor center and a lodge which no longer exists.

The National Monument is an hour and a half drive from Santa Fe Skies.  We didn’t arrive until 11:30 and the parking lot was full but Jodee has parking karma as I witnessed multiple times on my days with her.  I wasn’t surprised when someone pulled out of the perfect space right in front of the Visitor Center as we arrived.

She and Tessa checked out the film and the visitor center which I was afraid to do given the lateness in the day.  So I headed out to the trails.

The beginning of the Pueblo Loop trail which took me into Frijoles Canyon was paved and handicap accessible for some distance.  Archeologists say at least 3,000 sites are on the 33,000 acres of Bandelier but not all were inhabited at the same time.

The Canyon and the mesa above were formed by two violent eruptions of the Jemez volcano more than one million years ago.  It ejected enough material to cover a four hundred square mile area with a layer of volcanic ash up to 1000 feet thick. Each eruption was six hundred times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mt St. Helens.   Now think about that for a minute.

The rock of the canyon wall looks like sandstone but is actually volcanic ash compacted over time into a soft, crumbly rock called Tuff which is easily eroded by wind and rain.   Over time it takes on a swiss cheese appearance. 

Ancestral Puebloans used tools to enlarge some of the natural openings in the cliff face.

The first thing I came to was Big Kiva. Frijoles Canyon was occupied from about 1150 to 1550 CE  The kiva would have been covered with an earthen roof held slightly above ground level by 6 wooden pillars.  People entered and exited using a ladder from the ceiling as they do today in Pueblo communities.

Tyuonyi (QU-weh—nee) Pueblo  had approximately 400 rooms and stood 1-2 stories high.  About 100 people may have lived here with around 400 living in the Long House and cliff dwellings above.  This is only one of many pueblos around Bandelier.  Most remain unexcavated at the request of Pueblo Peoples.

Pictures of the pueblo taken as I walked higher up.

The path climbs and then comes right up next to the formations with stairs to climb to go higher.

Looking down on the paved trail around the Pueblo.

This artist’s conception of the Pueblo was taken from the trail guide.  Looks like a lot more than 100 people could live there.  Although I read that most of the ground floor rooms were used for food storage.

The stairs climb to different levels and you can look inside openings such as this one.  Petroglyphs are carved  into the rock surface and pictographs painted onto it.

Climbing up further  we are able to go into one of the caves known as cavates that were dug out of the cliff walls.  That would have been some work since even though the Tuff is soft, they used only stone tools.

I took these pictures from inside looking out.  I’m assuming the hole is a fire pit and thus the blackened ceiling.

This is probably my favorite picture since I could see Tyuonyi Pueblo below.

Or is this one my favorite?

Looking down Frijoles Canyon from above

This is known as Talus House and was reconstructed in 1920 to give an idea of how some of the cliff homes may have looked.  These fronts were constructed in front of the cavates in many cases.  Entrance here as in Tyuonyi was probably through the roof and the question in my mind is how did they keep the rain out?  What sort of cover and how closed?

Notice the horizontal pole roof supports.

Can’t enter but I can see inside.

Tyuonyi inside Frijoles Canyon.  What a wonderful sight and site.

Back down to a lower level.   If you can’t do stairs, you can’t see the cliff dwellings.

And as you can see, at points the path is narrow.  I’m wondering if the side of the path without railing is like what the Ancestral Puebloans had.

This cavate is called Cave Kiva and was reconstructed.  Evidence suggested narrow beams extended from the ceiling to support looms for weaving and small depressions still in the floor indicate the location of anchors used to keep the weaving straight.  Cave Kiva is replastered and smoked by the park preservation team on a regular basis to remove graffiti.  Unfortunately it was closed on this day due to pretty severe graffiti.  What is wrong with people?  

I think the sign is being very kind to the vandals in saying they “didn’t understand”.

I was very disappointed not to have been able to experience this sacred space.

Further along down the trail we came to what is known as the dwellings at Long House which, being constructed up against the cliff face, were often several stories tall.

The rocks on the ground are the lower layer of the walls.

The horizontal round holes are most likely support poles for additional floors as I saw at the reconstructed Talus House.

I zoomed in to the large opening on the left and saw these petroglyphs.

View of the canyon from in front of the Long House.

I was glad to see this aerial view of Long House in the trail guide to give me an idea of its size and scope.

Walking along it was difficult to imagine though it was clear that it went on and on..

One of the information signs along the trail indicated that there were petroglyphs carved above what was essentially a multi-story apartment building.   People must have stood on the roof to carve them.   This is one from the information sign.  Everybody was looking and looking to try to find it.

It was very difficult picture taking of this long ruins.

It was difficult spotting the petroglyphs high up and in the sunlight.

But I was able to find the one they had told us of.  Looks like a dog or some other animal to me.

Here again I could see the roof support holes above the stone ruins.

I’m wondering if this is a window.  It’s very high up on the rock face so I’m not sure how one would get to the spot for looking out.   I was wishing they had a ranger led hike here so I could get answers to all my questions.

It’s just above the most amazing pictograph at Long House.

This is a zoom of the pictograph you can see on the lower left of the photo above.  It was part of the back wall of a second story dwelling.  It is protected by some sort of, I assume, plastic covering.   I found it absolutely amazing to consider how old this art is.  The people are thought to have lived here from 1150 to 1550 CE.

Another pictograph could be spotted in the large opening.

I was very reluctant to walk back down the trail from these amazing dwellings to continue the loop to the floor of Frijoles Canyon.

The trail back went through the trees along Frijoles Creek which is a permanent stream, one of the few places on the Parjarito Plateau where water flows year round and no doubt a major reason for the location of the Pueblo.  It originates from snow fed springs in the canyon and flows eastward eventually to the Rio Grande.   I’m wondering what its future is considering global warming and fewer and lighter snowfalls.

The Ponderosa Pines were beautiful to look at and to smell.  The vanilla scent is an added benefit to tree hugging.

This was a wonderful inspiration hike and there is so much more to see here at Bandelier.  I particularly would have liked to extend my hike to Alcove House which was formerly known as Ceremonial Cave.  It is 140 feet above the canyon floor and you must climb four ladders.  Doesn’t that sound fantastic?  And I’ll have to return to give the Visitor Center the hours it will take me to see it all.

But I have a couple of non hikers waiting for me and it’s way past lunch time so instead  I cross the stream and head back.  I’ll have to plan a return visit. 

Lunch is right here in the National Monument at the Trading post.

We elected to eat inside and the food was very good.  Not sure how we got our mouths around the pretzel bun sandwiches.

I’ll round this out with the beautiful scenery on our way back.  I love when I’m not driving.  It seems like a long time.  Thank you Jodee.

New Mexico is gorgeous and I’d have to agree, a land of enchantment.